Members of Rapid Action Battalion, in separate drives, have arrested five active members of the banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), including a woman, from Ashulia in Savar and Dhamrai, on the outskirts of Dhaka on Saturday morning.
RAB identified the arrestees as Oliul Islam alias Shamrat, 23, of Jhalokati, Moazzem Mia alias Shihad, 20, of Gopalganj, Sabuj Hossain alias Abad Uddin, 26, of Dinajpur, Ariful Haque alias Hridoy, 20, of Chandpur and Rashida alias Humayara, 33, of Dhaka district.
Additional DIG and Commander of RAB-4, Mozammel Haque at a press briefing at RAB media centre at Karwan Bazar in Dhaka, said: “Acting on a tip-off, a team of the elite force conducted drives between Ashulia and Dhamrai area from 10:00pm to 4.30 am and arrested the five suspects.”
“The team also recovered books on extremism, leaflets and mobile phones with digital content,” added Mozammel.
In a press statement RAB stated: “The arrested extremists admitted they were followers of Jasimuddin Rahmani, a Bangladeshi radical Islamist cleric and spiritual leader of ABT, a banned terrorist organization in Bangladesh.”
In February 2013, Ahmed Rajib Haider, a secular activist and blogger, was killed by a group of students in Dhaka with machetes. Two other bloggers were murdered in a similar manner in subsequent months. The students involved in the killings were allegedly inspired by Rahmani’s sermons. Rahmani was arrested afterwards in August 2013 and was convicted in December 2015 for his role in inciting the murders. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
