'Sajid's wife' trained JMB women in India
Banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) trained its women operatives in India and the wife of prime accused in Burdwan blast case was the chief trainer, detectives said yesterday.
Fatema Begum, wife of detained JMB commander Sajid, and three others were arrested with explosives from the capital's Sadarghat area on Saturday, they added.
"Fatema was the chief trainer. She used to train the group's women at Burdwan's Shimulia madrasa which has only 50 students," Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam of Detective Branch told the press yesterday.
The three other arrestees -- Abdullah Kazi, Isharat Ali Sheikh and Shawkat Sarder -- joined JMB between 2004 and 2005 and had links with Sajid, believed to be the chief of JMB's political wing.
Detectives said the arrests were the outcome of information exchange between law enforcers of Bangladesh and India. Fatema's name is said to have been significantly mentioned by a team of India's National Investigation Agency, a federal body probing the Burdwan case, during meetings with officials in Dhaka recently.
Meanwhile, law enforcers also detained five suspected militants, including a Pakistani citizen, from Lord's Inn Hotel in Chittagong around 12:30pm yesterday.
The detainees -- Mohammed Alam, 44, Abdul Majid, 30, Md Amin, 53, Salamat Ullah, 45, and Shafiullah, 40, -- checked into the hotel on Saturday, said Sub-Inspector Ripon Sarker of Detective Branch of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP).
Alam, a citizen of Pakistan, claimed to be the director of a voluntary organisation, Global Rohingya Centre, he said.
According to his passport, he arrived at Shahjalal International Airport from Jeddah on Friday. Earlier, he had come to Bangladesh on March 20 and left on March 24.
Born in Karachi on June 30, 1970, Alam visited different countries, including Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Bahrain and Sudan, over the last one year.
Shafiullah, human resources secretary of ruling Awami League's Naikhangchhari upazila unit in Bandarban, is also a businessman. Salamat, a madrasa teacher of Cox's Bazar, allegedly had involvement in the arson attacks on Buddhist monasteries in Ramu in 2012, according to sources.
A DB official told The Daily Star yesterday evening that they are investigating whether Shafiullah and Salamat have connection with Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO).
The JMB and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (Huji), another outlawed Islamist outfit, had connections with the RSO, sources told this newspaper in 2012. Some JMB operatives received training from RSO arms experts in camps in remote areas of Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Another arrestee, Majid, is also from a Rohingya family, said sources.
BURDWAN CONNECTION
Fatema and two other women gave arms training to at least 25 women, including five to six Bangladeshis, at the madrasa, said Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam during a press briefing at the DMP Media Centre.
“They sought members from the poor and middle-income group,” he added.
Fatema, who hails from Bagerhat, intruded into India through Hili border a few years back and stayed at Burdwan with her husband. Three days after the arrest of Sajid by Indian police on November 8, she along with some other operatives came back, Monirul said.
During interrogation, Fatema claimed she was near the spot when the blast took place, the official added.
Two suspected JMB militants were killed in the accidental blast at a house in Burdwan's Khagragarh area on October 2. It was a den where the outfit was storing explosives to launch attacks, Monirul said replying to a query without going into details.
Abdullah, Isharat and Shawkat, the three arrested on Saturday, had taken part in the 2005 Brac Bank heist in Gopalganj along with Sajid and another JMB member Abdun Noor, detectives said.
They were arrested later. After their release on bail in 2011, they all went into hiding and continued their militant activities. Abdullah, Isharat and Shawkat used to maintain contact with Noor and Sajid before their arrest.
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