In the last few years, 440 militants have fled Bangladesh after exploiting legal loopholes to make bail. It is usually the delay in investigation and legal proceedings that allow militants take advantage of the system.
At the National Committee on Militancy Resistance and Prevention meeting on September 4, members from the security and intelligence agencies said 440 people accused in 331 militancy related cases have fled the country after getting bail.
"The police stations’ officer-in-charges, court police and public prosecutors of the respective areas from where militants have fled have all been instructed to start working on locating them," said several members of the committee, seeking anonymity.
On September 17, Indian police arrested suspected al-Qaeda key recruiter, Samiun Rahman alias Ibne Hadan, a 31-year-old British citizen of Bangladeshi origin from Vikas Marg in New Delhi.
Police described Samiun as a battle-hardened mujahideen who had fought for the Qaeda's al-Nusra front in Aleppo, Syria, before being sent to Bangladesh as a recruiter.
Samiun was arrested in Bangladesh in 2014 for trying to recruit members for international militant organisations Islamic State and the Nusra Brigade, also known as al-Nusra Front. He was actively trying to recruit militant operatives in Sylhet, Habiganj and Dhaka districts, the Detective Branch said following his arrest.
Since his arrest, police were baffled by how a British militant recruiter arrested in Dhaka three years ago was able to leave Bangladesh even though his passport had been confiscated by the authorities.
An official of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit, seeking anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune: "We work tirelessly for months to put these militants behind bars and then all that hard work goes down the drain when they are granted bail and flee the country.
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"Once they are out, these militants either go into hiding or start their militant activities all over again. If this keeps happening, we cannot stop militancy in Bangladesh," he added.
"As of September 21, a total of 624 people accused in militancy cases are in 68 prisons across the country," said Abdullah Al Mamun, assistant inspector general (Administration) of Prison Headquarters.
"We just maintain the prisoners and carry out the court order when prisoners get bail. If a militant prisoner gets bail then we inform all the intelligence wings and security agencies about the bailed militant so that they have them under surveillance," he added.
Shahely Ferdous, assistant inspector general (media and public relations) at the Police Headquarters told Dhaka Tribune: "We are trying to repatriate these militants legally."
During the meeting of the specialised national committee on anti-militancy, representatives from intelligence agencies said they were also looking into whether illegal Bangladeshi migrants abroad are also involved in militancy, said one of the attendees, asking not to be named.
Speaking on how these militants return to their old life, the police official seeking anonymity mentioned what happened in Mymensingh in 2014 when militant Anwar Hossain Faruq – after securing bail along with some of his associates – ambushed a prison van and freed three notorious militants, Salauddin Ahmed alias Salehin, Rakib Hasan Russell alias Hafez Mahmud and Jahidul Islam alias "Boma" Mizan – the top leaders of banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Faruq was later arrested on September 25, 2016 by Kolkata police in a drive at a JMB hideout from Bangaon in West Bengal.
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According to different law enforcement agencies, more than 200 suspected militants are out on bail since January.
Most of these militants are members of New JMB, old JMB (Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh), Ansar al-Islam, Harkatul Jihad and Hizb-ut Tahrir, said jail sources.
Shocked by the high number of militants being granted bail, high officials of security agencies said there is always a high chance that these men will return to militancy once out.