A camp has been set up on a remote hill in Bandarban to train youths who left their homes in recent months and joined the new militant outfit Jama'atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya.
The youths undergo training with assistance from Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF), in the morning and in the evening sermons are delivered by senior leaders of the militant outfit to encourage them to embark on jihad.
The chief of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), Md Asaduzzaman, said this during a press conference at the DMP media centre on Thursday.
Two of the recruits of the militant outfits nabbed by the law enforcers recently revealed the information to CTTC.
Of the youths, Saiful Islam Tuhin was arrested in Sylhet while Nayeem Hossain was nabbed in Dhaka recently.
The recruits told the law enforcers that one Shamin Mahfuz was the chief of their organization. He said that during recent joint raids in the hill tracts, members of the newly formed organization got divided into different groups and started staying in a scattered manner so that it became difficult to trace them.
In the process, some of the new recruits even tried to contact their families and wished to return to normal life. But these youths were forced to stay in their camps and there was little scope for them to get away, Tuhin and Nayeem told law enforcers.
Tuhin told the law enforcers that he was a student at a madrasa in Sylhet and was influenced to embark on jihad by his imam.
Regarding their recruitment, Tuhin said that three of them came to Dhaka from Sylhet on November 15 and then a large group left for Bandarban. Their phones and money were confiscated by an agent on the way. There were 10 more people in the group who were taken on foot to the camp. It took them 12 hours to reach the den, Tuhin disclosed to the investigators.
Nayeem, on the other hand, studies at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University in Dhaka. He was one of the 10 people to walk to the camp with Tuhin. Natahn Bom, the chief of Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF), used to visit the camp regularly and plan on advance training for the youths.
The KNF chief and Shamin Mahfuz even wanted to go to the Indian state of Mizoram in the face of the joint raid by the law enforcers.
The CTTC chief told reporters that Tuhin and Nayeem were tortured for wanting to leave the camp at one stage.
In October, with fierce raids by the law enforcers, the militants got divided into two large groups while Tuhin and Nayeem walked to a nearby Marma village. They were handed over to Kuki-Chin members by the villagers, where they were tortured further.
On November 25, the duo managed to escape and went to Bandarban. They were trying to contact their families when the law enforcers located them.
Jamaat chief knew his son was member of militant group
Asaduzzaman told reporters that the Ameer (chief) of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Shafiqur Rahman has confessed to the involvement of his son Dr Rafat Sadiq Saifullah with the new militant outfit Jama'atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya.
The CTTC chief said the Jamaat chief was aware that his son was involved in militancy. "But he remained silent and didn't inform the law enforcement agencies," Asaduzzaman said.
Rafat, son of Shafiqur Rahman, along with one of his associates, was arrested from Jatrabari area of the city on November 9.
