Taking advantage of slack monitoring and vigilance from the authorities concerned, the leaders of militant outfits in the various high security jails have been allegedly holding regular meetings and planning subversive acts.
The sensational information was revealed to the Detective Branch (DB) of Police during interrogation by seven JMB members including its acting chief Abdullah Al Tasnim, who were arrested in Ashulia near Dhaka on Friday.
“In other countries, authorities of high security jails keep leaders and activists of militant outfits in separate cells. But that does not happen in Bangladesh. As a result, the militants get the chance to regroup from very much inside the jails,” a high official of DB told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
The members of the outlawed Jama’atul Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB) told detectives that their chief Saidur Rahman and Mufti Jashim Uddin Rahmania, chief of another banned outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), had held talks inside the Kashimpur jail in Gazipur. Several members of the another banned group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (Huji) also joined that meeting.
The JMB members in custody also said the outlawed groups had made a decision to work together because their aims were the same – establishing an Islamic state in Bangladesh.
Mizanur Rahman, jailer of Kashimpur High Security Jail 1, said: “It is very well secured. The allegations of meeting between Saidur Rahman and Rahmani is baseless because they stay in separate buildings. Moreover, Saidur is physically challenged. He can not go outside without help...Meeting is not possible unless it is Eid.”
A DB official told the Dhaka Tribune that the JMB’s expertise lied in operations, especially concerning explosives, and ABT’s strong point was its technological know-hows. He said the two banned militant outfits had reached an agreement in jail to share resources so that they could be more ferocious in future.
Arrested JMB member Noki, a student of the North South University who used to be a member of ABT, took part in the mission for killing blogger Ahmed Rajeeb Haider. He joined JMB in April last year and provided technological support for the mission.
The official also said JMB had also been planning to expand activities in government offices by injecting its own men from among the trained members of its “slipper cell.”
When contacted, Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of DB, said: “We have learned from the arrested men that JMB militants are now trying to regroup and collecting funds following orders from their chief Saidur Rahman. They are planning to attack some important personalities of the state to get international media coverage, which would help them get funds from their donors.”
Monirul also told the Dhaka Tribune: “The militants are trying to initiate some businesses in the education sector because it is safe. We have learned that they have already gathered funds to start a college in the capital’s Uttara. They are now waiting for a suitable space near the Jashimuddin intersection.”
The DB chief said JMB had been looking to start coaching business in some of the posh areas in the capital so that law enforcers do not suspect their movements. The plan was to earn some money for recruiting new members for the militant outfit. The students that would get admitted to the college and the coaching centres, were their primary recruitment targets.
Alongside JMB, the ABT also runs several educational institutions in various parts of the country. According to detectives, the ABT is now building a madrassa in the Rupganj area of Narayanganj.
Intelligence officials said the JMB is now following the strategy adopted by international militant group Islamic State (IS). In fact, JMB has reportedly contacted the IS seeking support for its activities.
Before his arrest in 2006, JMB chief Saidur Rahman had held meetings with some al-Qaeda agents in Bangladesh and got some money from them. However, the contact got disconnected because the JMB had lost its grounds. The ABT took very little time to rise to prominence because it also had got direct support from al-Qaeda.
Detectives said the JMB had now been trying to organise all the Islamist outfits in Bangladesh, including Jamaat-e-Islami, under one umbrella with an aim to establish an Islamic state. But because of strong vigilance by the law enforcement agencies, that plan had not materialised and that was why they were now planning to attack some high profile people of the state.
A DB official involved with the interrogation of the JMB members, told the Dhaka Tribune that the JMB members had been trying to contact with the IS with help from some Bangladeshi expatriates in the United Kingdom via email.
The official said they were trying now to trace those Bangladeshi expatriates and the donors. The money mainly reaches via informal ways instead of any formal banking channel which makes it hard for police to track them down.
DB chief Monirul Islam said: “We have kept some NGOs under watch. We are also trying to track the mobile phones of some absconding militant leaders. We hope to make a major breakthrough soon.”
Currently, detectives are conducing raids in different parts fo the country in search of militants such as Maj Zia, Salehin, Boma Mizan, Fahim, Ezaz, Hat Kata Sohel, and so on.
