Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Bangla Bhai and his men have been active since 1998. Their interviews in various national dailies made it clear that they were hell-bent on destroying the very foundation of democracy and the state system. Besides, in those interviews they called for the establishment of a Taliban-like rule in the country.

The government in February 2005 banned JMB and JMJB but opted to gloss over the existence and activities of the outfit despite widespread concerns expressed by national and international security experts and the media. It started to deal vigorously with the militant operatives only after the serial blasts throughout the country.

"Had the government conducted investigation and took appropriate measures when the newspapers exposed the activities of Bangla Bhai and his gang in 2004, so many casualties and damage to property could have been averted," security analyst Brig Gen (retd) M Shakhawat Hussain told The Daily Star yesterday.

The government should also probe why the prime minister's order in 2004 for the arrest of Bangla Bhai was ignored, and who were responsible, he said.

"The government must come clean. If anyone is found connected with the militants, they [the government] must take action against them," he observed.

No one should be spared, be he a bureaucrat or a politician, he said, adding that security and sovereignty of the country should be placed above all.

When Bangla Bhai's Jagrata Muslim Janata, Bangladesh (JMJB) began their overt operations in April 2004, The Daily Star interviewed Bangla Bhai and JMB ideologue Abdur Rahman. It showed that the two had been running a subversive campaign in the name of Islam.

As the government kept refusing to take any heed of the militancy threats, JMB and JMJB staged near-simultaneous blasts across the country on August 17 last year, relaying the message that they would continue launching assault on the key pillars of the state system to bring about a society based on Shariah laws.

"If the government does not establish the Islamic laws in the country even after this third warning and if it arrests any Muslim for seeking Allah's laws or resorts to repression on Alem-Ulema, the JMB would go on the offensive," the August 17 leaflet read.

Much before the countrywide blasts, Bangla Bhai in an interview with The Daily Star in May 2004 said: "We don't believe in the present political trends. We want to build a society based on the Islamic model laid out in Holy Quran-Hadith."

Asked to clarify his model, he said, "Just wait and see."

Abdur Rahman claimed during the interview that his organisation is against the use of force. Neither does it want to assume power [as a political party] through elections. "If the people of Bangladesh give us the responsibility of running the nation, we will accept it."

During interrogation by the Task Force Intelligence (TFI) after his arrest Thursday, Rahman said he had training in bomb-making and firearms while fighting against the former Soviet Union forces in Afghanistan.

But in the May 2004 interview, he said he only visited Afghanistan.

"We don't have any direct links with the Taliban either. The Taliban wanted to establish the ideals of Allah. And they did their part with courage," he said.

Asked if the JMJB idealises the Taliban, he said: "Our model includes many leaders and scholars of Islam. But we will take as much (ideology) from the Taliban as we need."

The interview revealed their suspicious character as they tried to conceal information about their organisation and activities.

Bangla Bhai gave contradictory information about himself to different people. In April 2004, he introduced himself as 'Azizur Rahman' to journalists. Later it was said his real name is Omar Ali Litu. When The Daily Star asked about his name, he said: "I am Siddiqul Islam."

He said he had joined Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of ruling coalition partner Jamaat-e-Islami, while he was a college student. "When I finished my study in 1995, I quit Shibir because Jamaat accepted female leadership although it said it considered female leadership a sacrilege."

They said their organisation is headquartered in Dhaka but declined to give the address. "We don't want to disclose where our head office is. When the time comes, we will inform you," said the dreaded vigilante.

The leaders, who declined to name other top leaders and to give their addresses, identified themselves with different names and designations to different people.

On why JMJB kept its activities under wraps, Rahman said: "We don't want to declare our presence now. We don't want to take police help in the beginning. We want to establish the rights of the repressed people."

They said they were working to root out the outlaws in Rajshahi for the sake of the people, but they were in fact spreading militant tentacles in the region.

Although they were using the JMJB banner, the same gang of militants introduced it as JMB when 18 of their activists including Shaekh's brother Ataur Rahman Sunny were arrested at Khetlal in Joypurhat in August 2003.

To attain their goal, JMJB with three tiers of workers having some 10,000 full-time activists trained across the country and was spending up to Tk 7 lakh on them a month.

The first tier of the outfit has activists called "Ehsar" who are recruited on a full-time basis and act on directives from higher echelons, the ameer said. The second tier, "Gayeri Ehsar", has over one lakh part-time activists. The third tier involves those who indirectly cooperate with JMJB.

The August 17 leaflet said JMB had urged the government twice earlier to establish Islamic Hukumat (Islamic order), but instead of acting on the call the government arrested their workers. Still, JMB did not resort to any retaliation, the leaflet continued.

JMB called the present democratic system a creation of "kafer" (infidels) producing two groups, the government and the opposition, dividing the nation thereby. And this system gives right to enforce hartals and blockades to assume power, causing damage to public interest, the leaflet claimed.

In an appeal to bureaucrats and judges, the outfit called for stopping administrative and judicial activities under what they called evil laws of democracy, the constitution and the government that has yet to establish Islamic rule. " Make your life worthy by gaining Allah's blessings by extending your all-out cooperation in establishing the Islamic laws."

"Democracy is the product of evil power and it is the main weapon to establish evil forces in the world. This evil order allows arrests of Mujahideens who are on Allah's path."

The leaflet also carried a call for all members of the armed forces, including the army, BDR, police and Rab, to protect the laws of Allah instead of "evil laws" now prevailing in the country under the present constitution. " Don't abide by evil laws, obey the laws of Allah," it said.