Threat-caller a 'Jamaat' man
Detectives have arrested a Jamaat-e-Islami activist who, they say, issued death threats to 153 eminent citizens, sometimes masquerading as the so-called Islamic State, over the last one and a half years.
Arrested Abdul Haq, a former teacher of a madrasa at Jakiganj in Chhatak of Sunamganj, issued the threats using three SIM cards cloned from the phones of three people he had personal enmity with.
Meanwhile, detectives picked up AHM Khairul Asad, an employee of a telecom operator, from his Uttara home on Tuesday night and seized his laptop and tablet PC, Asad's family alleged. It could not be confirmed whether the “detention”, which the detectives deny, has any link to the threats.
In another development, the Detective Branch (DB) of police arrested Nahid Hasan, allegedly a Shibir activist, from Badda area.
He was accused of propagating in Bangladesh activities of the Middle East-based IS, and circulating messages on the social media that the IS had claimed responsibilities for the recent attacks and killings including the murders of two foreigners.
At a press conference yesterday, Joint Commissioner (DB) Monirul Islam of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said after a long investigation, they arrested Abdul Haq at the capital's Tejgaon Tuesday night. Two laptops and the smartphone used for SIM cloning were seized from him.
He cloned the SIM cards -- originally owned by Leading University student Faizur Rahman, Kushtia Islamic University student Salah Ahmed Fuad, and Vice-Principal of Jakiganj Madrasa Maulana Saad Ullah -- using spoofing software.
Abdul cloned the SIM cards to dodge arrest and frame the three, DMP official said.
Those who were threatened by Abdul include eminent personalities like Prof Anisuzzaman, Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, historian Prof Muntassir Mamoon, Finance Minister AMA Muhith and former law minster Shafique Ahmed.
Detectives tracked the trio down but learnt that they had no links with the threats.
They told police about their personal feud with Abdul. Based on their information, he was hunted down.
Joint Commissioner Monirul said Abdul had lost his job at the madrasa for bad character. But he is tech-savvy and can speak four languages -- Bangla, English, Urdu and Arabic.
Asked about the threats issued to renowned personalities through letters, Monirul said those might be the work of others like Abdul.
The former madrasa teacher developed a fascination for IS and the outlawed Ansarullah Bangla Team by reading articles on them, the DMP official said. "We will interrogate him to check if he is involved in any militant organisation."
The SIM cloning menace has been worrying law enforcers for quite a while.
A few months ago, a DMP deputy commissioner reportedly saw a call from the inspector general of police (IGP) on his mobile phone but when he picked up, he realised that the caller's voice was not of the IGP. Hanging up, the police officer called to the staff officer of the IGP and was told that the police chief had not called him at all.
The Daily Star yesterday contacted an expert to know how SIM cards are cloned.
Suman Ahmed Sabir, chief strategy officer of IIG Fibre@Home, said it could be done in three ways:
One: Someone could copy all the information of a SIM card when they get their hands on the phone. They can later use the information to create a clone of the original SIM card.
Two: Corrupt employees of mobile carriers could provide the culprits with SIM information or even with a copy of a specific SIM card.
Three: When two people are on the phone, a third person can track their network signals and clone the SIM cards. This, Suman says, is a very complicated and rarely used technique.
"We find a lot of incidents of SIM cloning and many people suffer every week. A few days ago, I found a case in which culprits extracted banking information of a man and stole all his money, using this technology," he added.
The other arrestee -- Nahid Hasan -- was accused of spreading IS propaganda with his Facebook page "Islamic State Dawla Al Islamia".
Detectives said Nahid was the administrator of the page that circulated unverified reports of the IS claiming responsibilities for different subversive attacks, including the recent murders of two foreigners, bomb attacks on Hossaini Dalan, and attack on a police checkpost in Ashulia.
Nahid, a student of political science at Rahmatullah University College in Tongi, is an Islami Chhatra Shibir adherent. He runs the Facebook page using fake IDs -- Khalid Bin Walid and Jihadi John -- and introduces himself as "army captain of the Caliphate".
In some cases, he uploaded the so-called claims in Bangla on the page even before the SITE Intelligence Group, which widely publicises the alleged IS claims, could post it on Twitter or its website, they law enforcers claimed.
The detectives said they were yet to find any link between Nahid's Facebook page and IS.
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