Mymensingh militant suspect is Chhatra League leader

One of the seven suspected militants arrested in Mymensingh is a leader of ruling Awami League's student front Bangladesh Chhatra League. Al-Amin, 25, is the vice-president of Chhatra League's Dhobaura Union unit. “He became vice-president of the unit last year and his family is known as Awami League supporters,” said Sourav Hossain Milon, general secretary of Chhatra League's Baghber Union unit. “Al-Amin's uncle Mofakkharul Islam was a former Chhatra League general secretary,” Milon added. He said that Al-Amin's arrest had stunned them. “It is hard to accept.” Milon said that the party would take steps against Al-Amin if he was found involved with militant groups. Police detained then seven men from a house in Mymensingh town's Kalibari area on Monday with books preaching radical views and electronic items. Others arrested are Masum Ahmed, 30, Shah Al Hossain Shamim, 27, Nasir Uddin, 27 and Roman Mia, 26, Shahidul Islam, 25, Ashiqur Rahman, 19. The detention came amid a series of raids on militant hideouts since the second half of March in Chittagong, Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Comilla. Fourteen militants were killed altogether while two managed to flee from Comilla. Bangladesh intensified crackdown on militants after last year's Gulshan cafe attack. Nazmul Haq, joint secretary of Awami League's Dhobaura Upazila unit, said that all of Al-Amin's relatives had been involved with the Awami League and its front organisations. “His detention came as a surprise.” Al-Amin's father Iqbal Hossain said that his son had started assisting him in his business after finishing ninth grade. He was supposed to sit for the SSC examination from Dhobaura Open University centre three years ago but did not do so since he had been occupied with the business, the father said. Al-Amin had gone to Mymensingh on March 27 to get money from a friend who had bought a motorcycle from Al-Amin, he added. “We could not reach him after that and later learned that he was arrested as a suspected militant,” he said, demanding a fair investigation. Dhobaura police's Officer-in-Charge Shawkat Alam told the Bangla Tribune that the investigators had been looking into Al-Amin's alleged militant links.