JMB leaflets call for agitation to free activists

JMB cadres Gias Uddin (bearded), Ninwar Hossain Ujjal and Anisur Rahman Khokon (front), arrested after August 17 bomb blasts, being taken to a court in Satkhira yesterday after expiry of eight days' remand. The court placed them on eight days' fresh remand. PHOTO: STAR

Jmaatul Mujahidin Bangladesh (JMB), an outlawed outfit of religious zealots, is now sending leaflets to schools, colleges, madrashas, Imams of mosques and others in Daulatpur, calling for launching agitation to free three of its activists, arrested after the August 17 serial bomb blasts.

The arrested persons are Shamsul Alam, Akbar and Nizam Uddin Inu, all hailing from Kishorinagar village in Daulatpur upazila.

Of them, Shamsul was a 'regional leader' of the outfit and directly involved in the August 17 bomb explosions in Kushtia district, according to police.

The JMB letters posted from Meherpur on Saturday reached the institutions and persons in Daulatpur on Monday, some recipients told this correspondent over phone yesterday.

"Why the people of Daulatpur are silent while three of your brothers struggling to establish an Islamic state are passing inhuman life in jail?", the leaflets said.

It also called upon the people to send their children to madrasas instead of 'modern schools and colleges' so that they can take lesson only on Islam. The leaflets also urged teachers of educational institutions to teach students about Islam.

The distribution of leaflets has created panic in the area because it is widely believed by local people that a large number of JMB activists are active in the area. The activists had earlier asked local people to join them, sources there said.

The local administration acknowledged distribution of the leaflets.

"We are closely watching the incident and searching for Islamist militants", Mustafa Kamal, Officer-In-Charge (OC) of Daulatpur police station told this correspondent when contacted over telephone.

According to various sources, JMB is well organised and has a good network in Daulatpur upazila.

Arrested Shamsul was the chief of the network. He supervised the August 17 bombing in the district, sources claimed.

Sources in intelligence agencies in Kushtia said, Shamsul told interrogators that he had been organising JMB in Daulatpur for the last four years.

Sources said he has at least 72 followers in his native Kishorinagar and adjoining Natnapara, Gorbari, Goalgram and Daerpara villages.

A former Jamaat-e-Islami activist, Shamsul joined JMB in 2002. He passed the Dakhil examination in 1989 from Daulatkhali Madrasha in Daulatpur, Alim in 1999 and Fazil in 2002 from Harabhanga DH Senior Madrasha in Gngni in Meherpur.

He joined Kishorinagar Dakhil Madrasha as a junior teacher in 2002.

Sources said Shamsul was often seen holding meetings with his followers at Kishorinagar High School and Ashish High School in Daukatpur.

After his arrest his followers have gone into hiding, they said.