Bangladeshis in IS territory flagged at immigration

Police have flagged the passports at immigration so that authorities are informed the moment they enter the country, police's Counter-Terrorism unit chief Monirul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune on Thursday. The law enforcement agencies have never specified the number of Bangladeshis went to the Islamic State territory, but media reports have revealed the names of at least 33 people, including the 12 members of a British Bangladeshi family. Another Bangladeshi family of five members have also gone to Syria from Dhaka. Immigration police now have a list of the people who have left the country to join IS in the last couple of years and they will be identified if they try to enter the country legally. CT unit sources said that it was unlikely that these people would return to Bangladesh legally, but they could try to return through the border. The IS has taken credit for 26 attacks in Bangladesh including the Gulshan cafe massacre between September 2015 and August 2016, but the Bangladesh government claims that they were members of a new faction of banned militant outfit JMB with links to IS. The victims of IS attacks include non-Sunni and non-Muslim preachers, foreigners and law enforcers. In an interview last year, the reported chief of IS operations in Bangladesh said that they would use the land as its base to launch attacks in Myanmar and India "to avenge the persecution of Muslims" and to establish a Shariah-based state here. At least three IS recruits who have returned to Bangladesh in the last two years have been captured by the police, including a woman named Mairuna Parveen, who was sent back from Kamal Ataturk Airport in Turkey on May 5, 2015, following a special diplomatic verbale sent from Dhaka. One was captured by the Border Guard Bangladesh while trying to cross the Bandarban border. Several non-resident Bangladeshis have also used the country as a transit to get to Syria or Iraq, like the 12-member family of British Bangladeshis. According to international newspapers, at least 50 UK-based Bangladeshi youths joined the IS group in Syria in late 2014. Most of them have been killed during fighting.