Even though their activities were earlier limited to only carrying out brief campaigns publicly in favour of establishing Caliphate, many of the members of banned militant outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir are now working together with the other outlawed militant groups and platforms to wage destructive activities.
Hizb ut-Tahrir has members and sympathisers in the administration, different security agencies, higher educational institutes, mosques and madrasas. The connections work as a boost for them to take lead in those platforms, sources say.
Having branches in a number of countries, Hizb ut-Tahrir started its operation in Bangladesh in 2000 and was banned in 2009 for its involvement in militant activities.
Since then they were campaigning against democratic governments by issuing media releases after holding brief processions and rallies in front of different mosques in the capital, Rajshahi and elsewhere, and pasting posters on the walls in the capital’s different areas especially Mohammadpur.
Latest, some 50 leaders and members were spotted on the first day of Ramadan in front of Gulshan Central Mosque, also known as Azad Mosque, after Jumma prayers as part of its global campaign.
They invited the common Muslims to join their cause through leaflets and fled the scene in a short time. Police received complaints but failed to arrest anyone from the spot.
However, according to the Anti-Terrorism Act that is applied against outlawed groups, any activity of such organisation – in any form – is considered as anti-state.
Despite facing ban, online and offline activities of the group that accepts male and female students mainly of private and public universities was never stopped until date.
They are operating the websites and Facebook pages in full swing.
They lure the common Muslims to join their movement by shaming the government terming it corrupt and anti-Islam, and claiming that they have a number of influential persons supporting their cause.
Recently they also campaigned against the proposed budget, the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the city corporation elections. Earlier, through posters and leaflets, they had asked the armed forces to capture power and set them in the helm to establish Caliphate.
The law enforcers in drives against militants arrested some of them, but no top-level leader.
In the face of recent threats, the detectives prepared a list of leaders and activists of the outfit, and found that most of them belong to high profile families of the capital.
The Detective Branch of police in a drive early this month arrested Nurullah Kashemi, a spiritual leader of militant platform Bangladesh Jihadi Group. His name was also found the list of wanted Hizb ut-Tahrir members as a coordinator.
A high official of DB police, requesting not to be named, told the Dhaka Tribune that the leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir’s female wing is highly educated. She completed graduation in architecture at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet).
The official, however, would not like to disclose any more details until they could arrest her.
Intelligence officials and detectives say due to vigilance and arrest of a number of leaders and activists, Hizb ut-Tahrir’s network had broken. Therefore, they are now trying to regroup desperately and have chosen to join the other groups including Ansarullah Bangla Team and platforms like Bangladesh Jihadi Group.
Detectives say since all the outlawed and other radical Islamist groups had different ideologies, now their aim is the same – uprooting the government and take over power to establish Shariah law.
Their link has also been found with murder and attack on secular bloggers. Rapid Action Battalion in early March arrested Shafiur Rahman Farabi in connection with Avijit Roy murder case. Farabi had been threatening US citizen Avijit, founder of Mukto-Mona blog, with dire consequences for the last few years.
Detectives have also discovered that some of the former Hizb ut-Tahrir members were taking training to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Of them, Wadud Jumman alias Saiful alias Ornob was arrested from Mohammadpur, Abdullah Al Ghalib from Baridhara DOHS and Faiaz Ismam Khan from Mirpur DOHS.
Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of DB police, said the Hizb-ut Tahrir members were trying to reorganise again but they could not be successful due to vigilance. “We are working to locate them.”
Asked about their online activities, Monirul, the chief of DB police, said they had some limitations to investigate the Facebook-related campaigns. “But we are keeping an eye on their activities and will arrest whenever we can trace them.”
