'Links to Militancy': S'pore deports 6 Bangladeshis

Singapore has recently deported six more Bangladeshis for their suspected involvement in militancy.

Later on October 17, they were arrested by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police at the BRTC Bus Depot in the capital's Motijheel area. They were held while “inviting” locals to join militancy. Six to seven of their cohorts, however, fled, said police.

The arrestees are Hossain Kabir alias Rubel, 36, his brother Hasarul Kabir alias Rasel, 34, Mohiuddin, 37, Afzal Hossain, 35, Shahadat Hossain, 23, and Rakibul Islam, 23.

A case was filed against them with Motijheel Police Station after their arrest.

Later on, a Dhaka court placed each of them on a six-day remand.

With the arrest of the six Bangladeshis, police in the last one year arrested 37 migrant workers deported by the Singapore authorities for their suspected link with militancy. 

Police could not say exactly when the six were sent back home from Singapore.

According to the case statement, all the arrestees had been in Singapore as migrant workers and they admitted that they were members of a militant outfit.

While in Singapore, they used to meet every Sunday evening in areas having high Muslim populations and tried to motivate and recruit people for carrying out militant activities in Bangladesh.

They also used to collect funds, spread jihadist propaganda, sermons and videos among people there, said police, quoting the case statement.

When the Singapore police learnt about their activities, they detained and deported the six Bangladeshis, telling them that they would never be allowed to enter Singapore again.

After coming back, instead of going to their village homes, they stayed in Dhaka and reorganised to continue their covert activities to establish a sharia-based state in Bangladesh.

On April 29, Singapore deported five Bangladeshis for their suspected militant links.

Back then, the Singapore authorities had said the five were investigated as part of a crackdown on the so-called Islamic State of Bangladesh (ISB), and it was found that “they possessed and/or proliferated jihadi-related materials, or supported the use of armed violence in pursuit of a religious cause”.

However, their involvement in the ISB was not found, according to Singapore's home affairs ministry.

On May 3, law enforcers arrested them from the capital's Banasree area over their suspected militant links, and filed a case against them under the anti-terrorism act.

Between November 16 and December 1 last year, the Singapore authorities arrested 27 Bangladeshi construction workers for “supporting armed jihad ideology of terrorist groups such as Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda”.

Of them, 26 were deported to Bangladesh. On December 21, police arrested 14 of them finding their links with militancy and kept the rest under surveillance.

Officials of the Detective Branch of police then said the deportees had no links to the IS or al-Qaeda, but 14 of them had ties with banned local militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and its detained spiritual leader Jasim Uddin Rahmani.

On July 12, a Singapore court jailed four Bangladeshi workers for two to five years for financing terrorism.

Meanwhile, amid arrest and expulsion of several expatriate Bangladeshis from Singapore on militancy connection, Singapore's Senior Minister of State of Ministry of Defence and Foreign Affairs Dr Mohamad Maliki will arrive in Dhaka today to discuss security and militancy.