Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (Huji-B), once a notorious militant outfit responsible for killing more than 100 people and injuring 600 others through various terror attacks in Bangladesh, failed repeatedly to reorganise its activities due to its members leaving for other groups and police vigilance.
Police said the present organizational structure of Huji-B is at its lowest point, and also claimed that Huji-B hardly has any capacity to carry out any major subversive activities in the country.
Although the outfit did not have any visible activity for a long time, it came under the spotlight again late last year following the arrest of Huji-B leader Mohammad Atiqullah alias Asadullah alias Zulfiqar after his return from the Middle East.
Following his arrest from Dhaka's Khilkhet area on October 2, 2019, officials from the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of police said Atiqullah, who held close contacts with top al-Qaeda leaders including the slain Osama bin Laden, had returned to the country with a motive to contact former Huji-B members to activate them.
Later, in a confessional statement, Atiqullah said he came to Bangladesh in March 2019, and started working for the release of jailed Huji-B members.
He also claimed that a former parliamentarian, Mufti Shahidul Islam, who became a member of parliament from Narail-2 constituency in 2001 during the BNP-led four-party coalition government, had assisted in organizing the militant group Huji-B from Dubai.
CTTC Chief Monirul Islam said one of Atiqullah's prime goals was to motivate his old colleagues and organize them. He, however, failed to succeed and got arrested.
Saying that activities related to militancy in the country were under control, Monirul also added that sometimes these militants try to reorganise but they are being caught before they can do anything as law enforcement agencies are on high-alert.
“Meanwhile, many have joined various other militant groups, especially banned militant outfit Ansar al-Islam, because the Huji-B's activities had gone down.”
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested four Ansar Al Islam members, including Ariful Karim Chowdhury alias Adnan, from Shah Ali Rainkhola area in Mirpur on December 18, 2019.
RAB told the media that at one time, Adnan was an active member of the Huji-B, but later joined the banned militant group Ansar al-Islam.
CTTC’s Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Saiful Islam said Huji-B has been isolated as its central leadership does not exist currently.
“However, some members have joined Ansar al-Islam. Some members remain fugitive abroad. Some are inactive although they follow its ideology, while some have returned to normal life,” he added.
Huji-B: Rise and fall
Different media reports and sources state that Huji-B started his journey in 1989 through Maulana Abdur Rahman Faruqi of Monirampur in Jessore. But the same year, Maulana Farooqi was killed while clearing a minefield in Afghanistan’s Khost area.
Three years later, on 30 April, 1992, Huji-B started as an organization after holding a press conference at the National Press Club in Dhaka. The founder of the Bangladeshi branch of the group was Maulana Abdus Salam and most of its members were returnees from Afghanistan.
Huji-B began activities of sabotage with bombing at Bangladesh Udichi Shilpigoshthi in Jessore. The militant group carried out a total of 13 brutal attacks in the six years from 1999 to 2005, killing more than 100 people and injuring more than 600 people, according to the different media reports and sources.
The names of Huji-B and its leader Mufti Hannan first came to light on July 20, 2000, after planting bombs at Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's public meeting place and helipad at Kotalipara in Gopalganj.
Huji-B militants carried out its biggest and most horrific attack on August 21, 2004, in Dhaka by hurling grenades at a public meeting of the then Opposition Leader Sheikh Hasina. The attack killed 22 people and hundreds of other Awami League leaders and activists, including Sheikh Hasina, were injured. Later, Huji-B was banned in October 2005.
