JMB’s Know-how on Explosives: Despite crackdowns, no dearth of experts
Crackdowns on militant hideouts broke down JMB's networks time and again since its emergence in Bangladesh, but the drives could hardly stop the banned outfit's endeavour to carry through explosive know-how.
The terror group was never in dearth of explosives experts, although the pre-empted operations led to the killings and arrests of many top leaders, including bomb experts of JMB and its pro-IS faction "Neo-JMB", since Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh was formed in 1998.
However, when one got killed or arrested, another one stepped into the predecessor's shoes as the top explosive expert in the organisation, who would train operatives and supply explosives to carry out new attacks.
The Daily Star learnt this after talking to a number of law enforcers engaged in countering militancy for a long time.
The first widely known JMB's explosive guru was Shakil alias Mollah Omar, who was killed during an operation in Cumilla on March 13, 2006.
Before he was killed in Rab firing, Mollah Omar blew up a powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) killing his own wife and two children.
The JMB started calling Shakil "Mollah Omar" -- the infamous deputy of Osama-bin-Laden -- as he proved his expertise in bomb making.
It was Shakil who supplied the explosives used in killing two judges in Jhalakathi on November 14, 2005, just months after law enforcers started a desperate hunt for top JMB leaders, following a synchronised blast of more than 500 bombs in 63 districts.
He also trained suicide bomber Hasan Al Mamun, who killed the two judges.
Immediately after Mollah Omar's death, notorious Zahidul Islam alias Mizan became the top explosives expert. He was called "Boma Mizan" in the organisation for his skills in making different types of bombs.
Mizan was arrested in the city's Taltola area on May 14, 2009.
On February 22, 2014, JMB members killed a policeman and snatched Boma Mizan, incumbent mainstream JMB Ameer Salahuddin alias Salehin and Rakib Hasan Russell alias Hafez Mahmud from a prison van in Mymensingh's Trishal in an ambush.
Boma Mizan later fled to India, where he was arrested at Ramanagara near Bengaluru on August 6, 2018.
After Mizan, "Boma Shakil" and Raisul Islam Khan Noman alias Fardin alias Nasif took over as explosive experts, said counterterrorism officials.
Shakil, a diploma holder in electrical engineering, and Fardin, who studied physics in Chattogram University, sincerely performed their tasks making grenades and other explosives. They also trained fellow operatives in bomb-making since 2013.
In December 2016, after busting a Mirpur den, where a huge consignment of grenades and bomb-making materials were found, DB officials said that Shakil took charge as top explosives expert after a long gap since Boma Mizan was arrested. Shakil was believed to have been killed in internal feud later.
Fardin and Tarikul Islam were killed as a powerful grenade went off in a den in Bogura on April 3, 2016. After the explosion, law enforcers recovered grenades identical to those used in the military and four pistols from the den, said an official.
Fardin supplied the IEDs blasted at a mosque in the Navy's Issa Khan Base of in Chattogram in December 2015.
Then came neo-JMB leader Maynul Islam Musa, a notorious bomb maker, who was killed with three other militants in a Sylhet den, where a heavy amount of explosives was stashed a large number of powerful explosives was stashed, in March 2017.
M Shakhawat Hossain, a former member of the Bangladesh Navy, an accused in the Chattogram Navy-mosque blast case, was also known to be an efficient explosive-maker.
Most recently, Ismail Hasan Furkan, who studied chemistry in Jahangirnagar University, was a serious matter of concern for law enforcers.
He provided training to around 60 neo-JMB operatives online on how to make IEDs.
Since 2018, the top explosives expert has been making manuals and videos on making IEDs and then sharing those with other members through end-to-end encrypted apps to train up operatives of the outfit.
He was arrested yesterday by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit.
"We had been looking for Furkan for the last four years," Rahmat Ullah Chowdhury, in-charge of CTTC bomb disposal unit, told The Daily Star yesterday, confirming the arrest.
Sanwar Hossain, a superintendent of police of Anti-Terrorism Unit, who served long years in the bomb disposal unit of CTTC, said other explosive experts of the JMB were nowhere near as skilled as "Mollah Omar" and "Boma Mizan".
"The duo made powerful explosives with perfection. The others tried, but could not due to lack of capability or unavailability of bomb-making materials… So, we have seen bombs either blasted while being manufactured or because they [militants] could not detonate them [bombs] properly on targets."
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