Apart from young and educated men, detectives have found trace of at least two women interested to join with the jihadi activities of international militant outfit Islamic State (IS).
One of them is a computer engineer at a private firm in the capital and another a physician in Sylhet.
They were traced by detectives while investigating IS activities in Bangladesh. They have allegedly taken all preparation to join the IS militants in Syria and Iraq.
The sensational information came into light after the arrests of suspected IS recruiter Aminul Islam Begh, 50, and one of his 20 recruits Sakib Bin Kamal, 33, in the capital on Sunday night.
Aminul is also a local coordinator of militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) – banned in 2005. He graduated from a Malaysian university and worked as the IT chief at a subsidiary of Coca-Cola while Sakib is a teacher at an English medium school at Lalmatia of the capital.
Yesterday was the third day of their interrogation. In February this year, two UK-based Bangladeshi teenage girls left for Syria through Turkey to join the ISIS jihadists.
Detectives in the last two years arrested around 15 IS members in Bangladesh including Samiun Rahman alias Ibne Hadan, a Bangladeshi British.
During the interrogation of Aminul and Sakib, the detectives got information about the 19 other members of the team. The law enforcers are now looking for their location, Mahfuzul Alam Rasel, senior assistant commissioner of the Detective Branch of police, said.
As per the prerequisites, most of the 20 IS recruits are technologically-expert youths. Detectives say the IS prefers such persons so that their members can dodge the law enforcers.
Although IS has no base in Bangladesh, its members are working in small groups. Detectives say at least a dozen such groups are active in the country.
These groups are at primary stage and now taking support from other militant groups including the JMB.
Earlier, detectives found involvement of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team with al-Qaeda. Some other international terrorist groups including Hizb ut-Tahrir have active members in Bangladesh too.
Md Shahjahan, additional deputy commissioner of DB police, said Aminul is the coordinator of a strong network of IS in Bangladesh.
“After his arrest, other top leaders are now trying to carry out their activities from hideouts. We are now analysing the information that we have got from the arrestees during interrogation and will arrest their associates.”
The arrestees wanted to set up a base camp in Bangladesh, he added.
Involvement of women in militant activities was earlier found after the Burdwan blast in West Bengal on October 2 last year, perpetrated by the JMB members.
A high official of DB police requesting anonymity said the IS recruits communicate with each other through internet and using cheat-codes. “None other than the members can decode those.”
During the murder of science writer and Mukto-Mona blog founder Avijit Roy at TSC intersection on February 26, the alleged planner – Ansarullah leader Redwanul Azad Rana – maintained contact with the executors through coded message via mobile phones. The DB police, however, failed to locate and arrest Rana – now believed to be in Australia.
DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said militants in Bangladesh now heavily depend on internet for internal communication.
“Our officials are on alert of such kind of activities. We have already got some sensational information from the arrestees about their activities on Facebook, Twitter and blog sites,” Monirul, also chief of DB police, said.
Police recently said several IS recruiters from Syria had visited Chittagong late last year and met with militant leaders from the JMB and other groups with an aim to implementing their common agenda of establishing a Shariah-based country with parts of Bangladesh, Myanmar and India.
Detectives say the local militant groups have been working together over the same cause since last year. They have targeted to kill the state head, government high-ups, noted personalities, secular activists and anybody who opposes their views.
