Many locals of Raninagar and Atrai disclosed to The Daily Star the torture and coercion of the JMJB led by its dreaded operations commander Bangla Bhai over the past months.

They said the adherents of the Islamist outfit confined Abdur Razzak, 40-year-old night guard of Siddiqia Madrasa, which they used as their camp at Vitigram village in Raninagar, on May 20 and tortured him inside.

Lying in bed, Razzak told The Daily Star yesterday, "They started using the madrasa as their camp on May 17 and began branding me as one of the leftist outlaws."

"They asked me about the whereabouts of the extremists and beat me mercilessly with hockey sticks in the two legs as I failed to say anything to their liking," he said, adding they also demanded Tk 5,000 in toll.

"As I failed this time too, they intensified the torture before letting go of me after 48 hours after the confinement on Saturday evening," he said.

Bangla Bhai men used the camp as their torture cell, he added.

"They took many people to their camps and branded them extremists or their associates," said Aftab, a Vitigram local.

"They (JMJB operatives) released those who paid them the toll they demanded," said Fatema of the same village.

The JMJB men extracted over Tk 1 lakh from 15-16 people of the area. One Zahidul of the village said he paid them Tk 2,000 and his neighbour Rafiqul Tk 3,000. Village doctor Shahidul also was forced to pay the JMJB toll on a regular basis.

Several hundred JMJB men led by Montu Daktar and Habibur Rahman raided the house of one Jagannath at Baragachha in Raninagar on Tuesday and took away the fish of his ponds, cut the palm trees and looted the paddy of 30 bighas of land to pay fare of vehicles they used in their Sunday showdown in Rajshahi.

They sold the looted fish, paddy and tree for Tk 5 lakh and paid the fare.