Islamic State, the transnational jihadist movement that has established a state in parts of Syria and Iraq, was planning major attacks on important Bangladeshi establishments and personalities, the Detective Branch (DB) of police said yesterday.
The statement comes after the arrest early yesterday of four local IS members, including its chief coordinator in the country.
The arrestees have been identified as Sakhawatul Kabir, chief coordinator of the Bangladesh chapter of IS, Anwar Hossain, who was earlier convicted in an explosion case, Rabiul Islam, an information technology expert and Nazrul Alam, a financier of the outfit.
“Acting on a tip-off, DB police arrested the IS members in the capital’s Khanbari intersection area under Jatrabari police station,” Shaikh Nazmul Alam, deputy commissioner of DB police, said at a briefing at the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Media and Community Centre.
Detectives seized a large cache of jihadist leaflets, three laptops, eight mobile phones, two CPUs, one keyboard, three laptop chargers, five RAMs, six modems, three CD-ROMs, eight software CDs, three pen drives, one passport, one card reader, two hard disks and a visa application form for Pakistan from their possession.
“The arrestees, led by Kabir, held several meetings in different locations of the capital to plan major attacks here, which were to be financed by the international section of IS,” Nazmul said.
“They were busy recruiting members for the transnational extremist outfit,” Nazmul said, adding that in primary interrogation, Kabir confessed to being the chief coordinator of the Bangladesh chapter of IS.
Nazmul said that among the arrestees, Anwar had been convicted in an Explosives Act case filed with Khilkhet police station in 2009 and served three years in jail for it.
Anwar was bailed from jail recently and started working with Kabir soon afterwards, Nazmul said.
He said that arrestee Nazrul Islam was a financier for the outfit who also provided IS operatives with lodging. He operates a ladder business in Gazipur and is an IT expert.
Kabir has told detectives that his prime objective was to gain media attention through acts of violence and the murder of prominent individuals in the country.
A former student of the english department of Titumir College in Dhaka, Kabir never completed his studies. He instead started a small computer business and slowly became an IT expert.
According to detectives, Kabir first joined banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in 2006. He went to Pakistan in 2009 and, after joining IS, received military training.
He is reported to have fought in Pakistan as an active IS member.
A DB high official, requesting not to be named, told the Dhaka Tribune that Kabir was a close aide of Sajjad alias Ezaz alias Aziz, the Karachi chapter IS chief who died in a police crackdown following the Peshawar school attack that killed at least 140 people, mostly children.
Ezaz is the son-in-law of JMB chief Maulana Saidur Rahman, who is now in jail.
In a drive conducted by Pakistani police against IS, arrestee Kabir’s brother-in-law, Shamim Ahmed, and arrestee Anwar’s brother-in-law, Sayem, were killed on January 8.
After Kabir returned to Bangladesh, his primary objective has been to recruit IS operatives here, detectives said.
“If his work here failed, he would have gone through Turkey and Egypt to Syria and joined the fight,” the DB official said.
Arrestee Rabiul is also an IT expert and has a passport, detectives said. Hailing from Jhenidah, Rabiul was planning to go to Pakistan to be trained by militants there.
The four arrestees, shown arrested in a case filed at Jatrabari police station under the Anti-Terrorism Act, were placed before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court yesterday around midday.
DB Inspector Jafor Ali Biswash placed them in the court and sought 10 days’ remand for each of the arrestees for questioning.
Metropolitan Magistrate Mizanur Rahman granted five-day remand for each of them.
Police drives in Bangladesh during 2014 netted nearly 40 people believed to be involved with international extremist movement IS, and local terrorist outfits JMB and Ansarullah Bangla Team.
