Rab claims it identified Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif

The Rapid Action Battalion yesterday claimed to have identified Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif, who law enforces believe is the ameer of militant group “Neo JMB”. 

Al-Hanif was no one but Abdur Rahman, who died after jumping off a five-storey building during a Rab raid in Ashulia on October 8, said Rab Director General Benazir Ahmed.

“The real name of the Neo JMB ameer is Sarwar Jahan, known in the militant circle as Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif, Moktar, Prakash and Babu,” the Rab chief said at a press conference yesterday.

According to a Rab press release issued yesterday, Sarwar's passport, driving licence and national identity card, however, mention his name as Abdur Rahman.  

Two top officials at DMP's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit and the Police Headquarters, who have been intensively dealing with militancy, said they got nothing that corroborates the Rab claim.

At no stage of their investigation, the police officials said, they ever found that Al-Hanif was Abdur Rahman or Sarwar Jahan.

“Neo JMB” militants arrested so far did not divulge any such information, they told The Daily Star, seeking anonymity.

The name, Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif, came to light after he was described as the ameer of the “Khilafah's Soldiers in Bengal” by IS propaganda magazine Dabiq several months back.

Initially, police mistook him for Bangladeshi-Canadian Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, the alleged mastermind of the Gulshan attack.

After the police raid on a militant hideout in Narayanganj on August 27 left Tamim dead, police said he was identified as Abu Dujanah al-Bengali, the military commander of “Neo JMB”.

Police are yet to now know who Al-Hanif actually is but they believe he is the chief of “Neo JMB”, a group inspired by IS ideologies and far more radicalised than the original JMB. 

Recently, a new propaganda magazine of IS, Rumiyah, published an article by Tamim. He wrote the piece under the name of Abu Dujanah al-Bengali and the journal identified him as the “Former Head of Military and Covert Operations of the Soldiers of the Khilafah in Bengal”.

At the press conference, Benazir Ahmed said Rab had found Sarwar's letters, emails, and text messages. And many of those documents were signed by Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif.

“Some documents on Neo JMB's operations and financial transactions found by Rab prove that this Abdur Rahman was the Neo JMB ameer Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif, whose real name was Sarwar Jahan,” he said.

According to Benazir, Rab found “countless organisational letters” of the militant group, a JMB offshoot that law enforcers of late began to call “Neo JMB”.

“From July 21 last year to October 6 this year, Sarwar under the name of Hanif sent nine letters to different places in the capital and received 10 letters from different levels of the militant organisation.”

Sarwar was also a financier of the militant outfit, the Rab boss added.

One of Sarwar's main associates, Dr Rokon, a former physician at a Dhaka hospital, contributed about Tk 60-80 lakh to “Neo JMB” through a money launderer from Gopalganj, Hasibul Hasan, 48, and an engineer of Rajshahi, Nafis Ahmed Nayan, 28.

Benazir further said Rab officials on October 20 conducted raids in Motijheel and Mohakhali areas and caught Hasibul and Nafis and recovered Tk 27.7 lakh from their possession.

Rab found letters where it was mentioned that Nayan gave Tk 5 lakh to “Neo JMB” and pledged to give a similar amount at a later date.

According to the letters, Nayan gave Tk 1.2 lakh to a sister of a militant. After the arrest, the duo “admitted writing the letters”.

In the first-ever briefing by Rab at its newly built media centre at BCIC Bhaban of Karwan Bazaar, the Rab chief also said Sarwar, from Bholahat upazila of Chapainawabganj, had been involved with banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) since 1998.

He was arrested in 2003 on charges of attacking police led by JMB second-in-command Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai  in Joypurhat, but was released on bail nine months later.

About one and a half month after the release, he vanished.

With years of experience as a militant, Sarwar formed “Neo JMB”, according to the Rab chief.

Sarwar passed Dawra, a degree in Qawmi madrasas equivalent to MA, and was fluent in English, Arabic and Urdu.

His passport issued on September 10, 2014, mentioned his name as Abdur Rahman, his father's name as Abdullah and his permanent address as Kushkhali of Satkhira Sadar upazila. However, the address was later found to be false, said the Rab chief.

His parents Abdul Mannan and Saleha Khatun of Thumribhuja village under Bholahat upazila of Chapainawabganj were later traced and they identified him from a picture.

Contacted yesterday, his father said Sarwar had been away from home for over 15 years. He added that he had no idea of what became of him. However, he said he would like to see his son's body and bury him.

A tailor, Mannan said that he didn't have the money to come to the capital and take the body, kept at the mortuary of Dhaka Medical College.

Rab showed the family Sarwar's photo from driving license over Viber. Seeing the photo, his father and mother confirmed that this is Sarwar, said his elder brother Kamruzzaman.

Sarwar was 30 years of age at the time of his death, according to Kamruzzaman.

'NEO JMB DECLARATION'

The Rab chief also cited a “Neo JMB declaration of July 21 last year” that announced Sarwar as the chief of the militant group.

The declaration was signed by Sarwar and Tamim Chowdhury, who went by the name of Abu Dujanah al-Bengali.

Benazir mentioned that the declaration cited a “Neo JMB” meeting where older militant groups were pronounced ineffective and a new “Majlis-e-Shura [advisory council] was created”.

The Sura members nominated Sarwar as the “Neo JMB” ameer [chief].

Examining the documents found by the elite force, it became apparent that the militants led by Sarwar were planning to conduct some attacks in near future and create a safe zone in the country, even though the group was weakened by drives by Rab and other law enforcement agencies following the Holey Artisan siege, the Rab chief said.

He added that the group was not directly affiliated with any international terrorist bodies.

On August 27, when the law enforcers cornered Tamim in his Narayanganj den, he contacted Sarwar.

The Rab chief showed reporters a “correspondence” between the two militant leaders that took place from 2:23am to 3:39am.

It appeared that Tamim was asking his superior to continue his work and execute the plans they made.

Quoting the correspondence, the Rab DG said Sarwar responded to the messages at 3:02am and asked Tamim to destroy the hard disks of computers. He also asked whether Tamim had grenades.

Sarwar then asked Tamim to throw the grenades and start fighting. “The entire operation was dictated by Sarwar,” he said.

Benazir said Tamim and Sarwar decided that they would not be caught alive.