From hope to horror
Kazi Ziaul Haque Tuhin had lost all hope. Amid family troubles, his business was facing losses, and brokers who promised to send him abroad ultimately cheated him.
Out of frustration, he left his home in Cumilla's Langolcoat in November 2021. After that, the first man Ziaul met was Habibullah, the imam of Quba Mosque near his home, who was little known to the former.
Ziaul, 32, gradually got close to Habibullah, who then inspired him to go to Bandarban, saying that the imam and others have a madrasa there, and some of them have bought land in the hills.
Habibullah told Ziaul that in the hills, the troubled man can earn a livelihood by farming and concentrate fully in worship amid a peaceful environment.
Motivated, Ziaul closed his business and took out Tk 4 lakh.
Habibullah assigned an associate, Tamal, to send Ziaul to Bandarban, and finally on December 19 or 20, 2021, he and Nahid, another youth from Cumilla, went to Bandarban.
Eventually, they ended up at the camp of the newly-surfaced militant outfit Jama'atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya in the deep forest of Bandarban.
Ziaul had to undergo military training with many others at the facility of an armed group in the hills -- known as Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF).
After two failed attempts, he eventually managed to escape the camp and surrendered before a Dhaka court.
He gave a confessional statement before the court recently as a victim. In the statement, he narrated how he was misguided to go to the hills and cheated by the militants, how difficult the journey was, the terrible days at the camp, and the outfit's training activities at KNF facilities.
He also narrated how he was tortured after trying to escape.
According to Rapid Action Battalion, around 55 youths left their homes for so-called "hijrat" and were trained in explosives and firearms at the KNF facilities. Around 12 of them have so far been arrested, and two others have died, said Rab Director (Legal and Media) Khandaker Al Moin.
"Hijrat" is an Arabic word, derived from "hijr", which means "to depart".
In his statement, Ziaul said after being instructed, he left with Tk 4 lakh, a backpack and some necessary clothes and his smartphone. But Tamal seized Tk 3 lakh and the phone from him, due to "security reasons". Ziaul then received a feature phone, which had only one number in the contact list.
After getting down from a bus at Bandarban around 6:00am the next day, he called the number as per instruction, and two men arrived. Around 4:00am the next day, After several hours of riding on motorbikes and walking through forests, canyons and mountains for 12 hours, Ziaul reached the camp, he added.
After another eight-hour walk, he met three people, one of whom Ziaul later found out was Shamin Mahfuz alias Sir, chief of the militant outfit. The three then took the feature phone away from Ziaul.
Ziaul said there they found two batches -- the older one had 12 members, while the new one 30. The monthlong commando training for the old batch started the day he reached the camp. The training included running and physical exercise.
He was told that the training is necessary for defence, as various insurgent groups in the mountain area may attack them.
"Our training started 15 to 20 days after the senior group finished training. I trained for a few days in February last year. But soon I got sick, so I could not complete the 45-day course," Ziaul said.
The training was divided into three parts -- the first being physical preparation, then war tactics with firearms, and finally patrolling in the hills with arms.
He said at the end of February, Tamal, which is an alias of the outfit's ameer Anisur Rahman, went to the camp, and Ziaul asked him about the land purchase, but the latter brushed the query aside.
"I realised at this time that they had cheated me. I, however, didn't have any direct conflict with them," he said in the statement.
Ziaul said he requested the people there to allow him to leave the camp, but they indirectly let him know that there is no way to leave, he added.
While the young man kept insisting to leave, at one point the militants tied his hands and feet and kept him blindfolded. He was untied after two days, after they were assured that he would not flee. They, however, had their eyes on him.
Ziaul wasn't the only victim. The outfit members tied up and blindfolded six others from Sylhet, as they also wanted to leave, Ziaul said. Three of them are Saiful Islam Tuhin, Sayeed and Suman from Sylhet's Osmani Nagar upazila.
During Ziaul's stay there, one member of the outfit, Dr Ahmad alias Zaheer, was shot dead when a separatist group attacked their camp. Ahmed was buried there a day after.
Rab later came to know that Ahmed is actually Zohaer Md Rahman from Noakhali's Sonaimuri.
On the morning of July 14, Ziaul fled the militant camp. After walking through the hills for six hours, he reached an indigenous village. With the help of a local there, he went to Rowangchhari and then to Bandarban town. Then, he went to a relative's home in Cumilla and finally reached the capital.
Ziaul said initially he didn't contact anyone, including law enforcers, as those in the camp had warned of severe punishment if anyone discloses anything.
ANOTHER YOUTH SPEAKS
Saiful Islam Tuhin of Osmaninagar was arrested on December 22 last year by officials of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime.
After dropping out from a Qawmi madrasa, he took a job as a night guard of a community centre at Osmaninagar's Dayamir area to help his financially-strained family.
The 21-year-old youth was slowly motivated to go on hijrat, to the hills of Bandarban, by one moulana Sayeed. Tuhin was told to stand by the side of Arakan people, he said in a statement given to police.
Tuhin said outfit members had seized their phones, NID cards, birth certificates and passports. Then the militants gave the new recruits fake NIDs.
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