The Daily Star investigation spread over several months has found over 30 religious militant organisations have set up their network across the country since 1989 with the central objective of establishing an Islamic state. Many of them have given armed training to their members to conduct jihad.

These militant organisations are Harkatul Jihad, Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Jagrata Muslim Janata, Bangladesh (JMJB), Islami Biplobi Parishad, Shahadat Al Hiqma, Hizbut Towhid, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Ahle Hadith Andolon, Towhidi Janata, Bishwa Islami Front, Juma'atul Sadat, Al Jomiatul Islamia, Iqra Islami Jote, Allahr Dal, Al Khidmat Bahini, Al Mujhid, Jama'ati Yahia Al Turag, Jihadi Party, Al Harkat al Islamia, Al Mahfuz Al Islami, Jama'atul Faladia, Shahadat-e-Nabuwat, Joish-e-Mostafa, Tahfize Haramaine Parishad, Hizbul Mojahedeen, Duranta Kafela and Muslim Guerrilla.

Many of their activists are Afghanistan and Palestinian war veterans who fought there after receiving training in Pakistan, Libya and Palestine. After returning to Bangladesh, these militants scattered over the country and started militant activities since the early 1990s.

According to intelligence agencies, about 7,000 members from different organisations including the Freedom Party were trained in Libya in the early 1980s and 1990s.

Sources said over 200 Bangladeshi Jihadis were killed and 500 wounded in battles in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine.

When they returned from foreign frontiers, a number of them set up madrasas as cover, mainly toeing the Qwami line, which is the more orthodox system of Islamic education and needs no government registration. They chose the forests of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, mosques and the Qwami madrasas mainly in the north to train their activists.

They also set up their network in Dhaka, starting from Kamrangir-char, and later spreading to Kafrul, Adabar, Shekhertek, Basila and Demra.

Operating under different names, the groups maintain close contact with each other.

Although the intelligence agencies had made various reports on these militant groups and recommended their bans, the government remained mysteriously silent since 2002. Rather, some militants arrested at various places with evidence of subversive activities got free as the cases against them were not properly pursued.

Although the government did not admit the existence of any extremist organisations, it banned Shahadat Al Hiqma on February 9, 2003, and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) and Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) on February 23 this year.

A press note issued on February 23 said: "These groups are engaged in murders, robberies and bombings ... by capitalising on religious sentiments."

But Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on July 1, 2003, told parliament that no al Qaeda men exist in Bangladesh.

"There is no fundamentalists or zealots in the country," she told Ulemas (Islamic scholars) on September 6, 2003.

On the contrary, however, ruling coalition partner Islami Oikya Jote Chairman Fazlul Haq Amini on March 8, 1999 told a public meeting, " We are for Osama [bin Laden], we are for the Taliban and we will be in government in 2000 through an Islamic revolution."

"An Islamic revolution will take place by Qwami madrasas," Amini said at an Islamic conference in Comilla on March 1 this year.

"By terming us gunrunners and terrorists, Qwami madrasa movement cannot be stopped," he added.

But as late as January 27 this year, Jane's Intelligence Review, the leading defence magazine of the world, reported: "Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries on earth, on the brink of being a failed state, and that makes it a perfect target for al-Qaeda and its ever-expanding network of Islamist extremist organisations. Virtually unnoticed by the world at large, Bangladesh is being dragged into the global war on terrorists by becoming a sanctuary for them."

CHANGING FACES
In the wake of the recent bomb blasts, The Daily Star investigation found most JMB and JMJB leaders were in the past members of the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), the student front of ruling coalition partner Jamaat-e-Islami Bangla-desh.

Sources said the militants hide their identity by using the names of different organisations. Many have joined the Tablig Jamaat, the religious movement supposed to be non-violent and non-political.

Whenever the militant groups come under police suspicion, they quickly change name to continue their activities. The JMB is a case in point that has so far changed names 18 times, intelligence sources said.

ACTIVISTS
By their own claims, the militant groups have some 10 lakh members across the country. An intelligence report says about 80,000 of them took training in arms and explosives.

Only the JMB has 10,000 full-timers, 1 lakh part-timers and 10 lakh trainees.

JMJB leader Bangla Bhai on May 12 last year claimed in an interview with The Daily Star that he has over 30,000 activists working in 57 districts.

Hizbut Towhid boasts of 1 lakh members while Al Hiqma Chairman Syed Kawsar Hossain Siddiki on February 8, 2003 claimed he has over 36,000 trained members.

Harkat-ul Jihad (Huji) has over 25,000 trained activists, according to some Huji men. But intelligence source says the claim is exaggerated and the organisation has around 15,000 members who are now working for different Islamic parties after crackdown on the group in 1999.

The militant members come from a varied spectrum -- several teachers of Dhaka University, Rajshahi University, Chittagong University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), Kushtia Islamic University, North South University, and Victoria University are involved with these militant groups, mainly looking after finances, public relations, and foreign connections.

Each group has various wings -- the largest looking after publicity and recruitment, the wing that takes armed training is comparatively small. Another branch works as 'intelligence wing', mixing up with the common people and activists of other parties and attending political and cultural programmes.