Key militants have managed to flee and avoid arrest by the Rapid Action Battalion in the force’s recent drives. The elite crime busters raided three militant dens and seized a large cache of arms and sensitive documents over the last 10 days in Chittagong.
While they have arrested a number of militants, the hybrid law enforcement unit is unsure about which groups ran the dens that doubled as training centres.
RAB sources say they suspect three banned Islamist organisations – JMB, Huji and Hizb ut-Tahrir, and another, Ansarullah Bangla Team – that have been operating actively in the region.
RAB 7 discovered a stockpile of deadly explosives yesterday morning at a house in Bashundhara Residential Area in Chittagong’s Halishahar and detained three persons including a leader of Islami Chhatri Sangstha, Jamaat’s female student front.
They seized 76 handmade grenades, 150kg of explosives, 30 types of bomb-making equipment, 24 rounds of shotgun ammunition, other equipment including 96 pairs of combat weight belts and 86 pairs of jungle boots, besides many documents and jihadi books of Jamaat’s student front Islami Chhatra Shibir and other banned Islamist outfits.
The trio arrested during the 36-hour drive are Rahima Akhter, 21, a leader of Chhatri Sangstha’s Chittagong city (south) unit, her brother Faizul Haq, 30, and Abdul Hye, 36.
RAB chief Benazir Ahmed visited the spot with Additional Director General Col Ziaul Ahsan and Director (legal and media) Commander Mufti Mahmud. An entire battalion could be equipped with the explosives that had been recovered, Benazir said at a press conference.
Sources in RAB said the leader of the group, identified as Parvez, managed to flee during the drive.
On February 19, the same unit nabbed 12 militants from an Arabic literature and language coaching centre, Al Madrasatul Abu Bakar, in the Alipur area of Hathazari. But the head of the coaching centre, Mohammad Fattah, escaped.
Based on information gleaned from the arrestees, RAB busted a militant training centre inside a reserve forest in Lotmoni of Banshkhali upazila on February 21 and nabbed five more militants.
They found a large cache of arms and ammunition along with combat training equipment but Mohammad Mobarak and his brother, who ran the camp, fled the scene, sensing the presence of law enforcers.
Both police and RAB sources claim the key militants have been evading arrest because the elite force is conducting drives without any support from the local police.
Halishahar OC Syed Abu Mohammad Shahjahan said he had not been informed about the drive. He learnt about the operation from the local ward councillor yesterday morning.
A high official of RAB 7, seeking anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that the key leaders usually go into hiding whenever they fail to get in touch with people who are designated at certain locations.
“When any of their men are busted, the key leaders get wind of our drives,” RAB 7 Commanding Officer Lt Col Mifta Uddin said.
The flat in Bashundhara was rented by Faizul and his fake relatives early in February. The owner of the five-storey building is a US expatriate who was looked after by a relative.
The neighbours and locals said they had no idea about the tenants. The windows of the flat remained shut most of the time.
“Another 2,000 grenades could be produced with the seized explosives and raw materials,” Mifta said, adding that the entire building would have been blown apart if there were an accident.
Benazir said an evil force was working to unleash anarchy in the country and turn it into an Afghanistan. He, however, refused to disclose the identity of the group “for the sake of the investigation.”
Such underground activities are usually run in collaboration with international and local militant groups and their patrons, he observed. “The volume of explosives and ammunition suggests the militants planned deadly sabotage in Chittagong and adjoining areas,” the RAB boss added.
