Cops hunt for Huji gang

Khairul Bashar

Detectives are in the hunt for a group of Harkatul Jihad al Islami members, who were trained in Pakistan to make powerful bombs and weapons.
The group comprising 10 to 12 members were trained by Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. They visited Pakistan on tourist visas in the three phases over the last two years, said the Detective Branch of police.
The DB police disclosed this hours after arresting Khairul Bashar alias Ibrahim, who claimed himself to the "chief" of Huji's operations wing. Ibrahim said he received training from Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan for three months last year.
Detectives arrested Ibrahim, imam of Salehnagar Jame Mosque in Narayanganj, from capital's Sayedabad area, acting on information from seven Huji men held on October 25 and November 1.

Upon their return from Pakistan, the Huji men started giving training to other operatives. They had a plan to carry out attacks on different establishments in August this year. But they became frustrated as their superiors asked them to shelve the plan.
“Ibrahim learnt how to make explosives and firearms, plant bombs at targets and explode those,” Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said at the press briefing at the DMP Media Centre in the capital.
The Huji men received intensive training on making small arms and powerful explosives and on operating heavy weapons.
They ran a laboratory in Narayanganj, and were making preparations to set up an "indoor arms factory" to produce arms and explosives, Monirul said.
The DB police busted the laboratory at Fatullah on October 25 and seized huge cache of explosives and bomb-making materials.
Upon arriving at Karachi airport, Ibrahim and other Huji men were taken to an “enclosed place”. It took them seven hours to reach the place by bus. They then received training there on "attacks on soft and hard targets", Monirul said quoting Ibrahim.
Bangladesh's less protected and busy places such as bus and rail stations and shopping malls are their soft targets. And protected places like police stations and government offices, and important persons are their hard targets, he said.
The Huji men had received a week-long preliminary training at a madrasa in Chittagong before flying to Pakistan, Monirul said.
Replying to a query, the DMP joint commissioner said Mufti Hannan, Mufti Rouf, Moulana Abdus Salam and Moulana Abu Sayeed alias Mufti Zafar were leading several sections of the banned outfit, said the police official.
All eight arrested Huji men are followers of Mufti Zafar, who is now in prison, he added.