5,000 militant suspects on police list

Police have drawn up a list of nearly 5,000 suspected militants and a special drive is underway to arrest them.

The 10-day drive was launched across the country on March 9 upon an instruction from the Police Headquarters (PHQ) to district superintendents of police to bring the suspects to book, sources in the headquarters said.

A total of 77 suspected militants have been rounded up in the drive until Wednesday. The arrestees are from different militant outfits, including Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), its offshoot “Neo JMB”, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Shahadat-e Al Hikma and Allar Dal.

The drive comes hot on the heels of some recent militant activities, including an attempt to snatch away a top militant from a prison van in Gazipur's Tongi.

Talking to The Daily Star on Wednesday, Assistant Inspector General (confidential) of Police Md Moniruzzaman said, “We sent a list of militants to all the police superintendents and instructed them to carry out a special drive in their respective districts.”

The list was prepared based on information gleaned from arrested militants and police investigations. There might be some fake names or pseudonyms in the list and the SPs would verify those through investigations, he added.

A top PHQ official, who was involved in the compilation of the list, said the list contained names of about 5,000 militants hiding across the country.

Another high official in PHQ said law enforcers arrested suspected militants Mahmud Hasan and Ahmed Azwad Imtiaz Talukder alias Omi in Comilla on March 7. The two during primary interrogation told police that “Neo JMB” operatives relocated to different bordering districts from Dhaka and that they chose Chittagong as its “capital”, the official told this correspondent on condition of anonymity.

On March 6, suspected militants hurled several crude bombs at a convoy of four prison vans in Tongi, one of which was carrying condemned Huji chief Mufti Hannan. Police suspect the attack was carried out to snatch away Hannan.

AIG Moniruzzman said police had support from local people in Comilla and Tongi in arresting the militants who tried to flee.

Police were conducting the special drive with support from local people and police stations to make sure that no militant can set up a den in any remote area, he added.

According to him, police's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit was mainly looking into the militancy issue. As it is yet to have offices across the country, a police official in each district has been working as a counter-terrorism official.

Speaking at a recent programme, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque said the special anti-militancy drive already “weakened the militants”.

Militants try to relocate due to the continuous drive, but they will be rooted out, he said.