New militant group: Its formation was planned inside prison
The formation of newly-emerged militant group -- Jama'atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya -- was planned in jail by leaders of three banned militant outfits arrested years ago.
One of the planners, Shamin Mahfuz, 47, a former Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh leader, has been the key figure in the outfit since its formation in 2019.
Md Asaduzzaman, chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit, revealed this at a briefing at the DMP media centre yesterday following the arrests of five operatives of Jama'atul Ansar.
The five -- Abdullah, 22, Tazul Islam, 33, Ziauddin, 37, Habibullah, 19, and Mahmudul Hasan, 18 -- were held in the capital's Demra on Wednesday night.
Shamin alias Mending Murang, 47, was expelled from a cadet college for his involvement with Islami Chhatrashibir.
A former teacher of Bangladesh Open University, Shamin graduated from Dhaka University. He was on the merit lists of SSC and HSC results. He is known in the outfit as "Sir", the CTTC chief said.
Asaduzzaman said detectives arrested Shamin in 2014 for his involvement with JMB as he was recruiting operatives across the country and giving them training on arms in Chittagong Hill Tracts.
In 2015, Rab arrested Ansar Al Islam operative Mainul Hasan Roxy with explosives from the capital's Darus Salam area.
During their stay in jail, Shamin and Roxy came in contact with Harkat-ul Jihad Al Islami (Huji) leader Maulana Abu Sayeed alias Dr Abu Zafar, who was sentenced to death in a case over the August 21 grenade attack.
"These three men planned to form the new outfit in jail. They planned that Roxy and Shamin would come out of the jail and form a strong outfit," said the CTTC chief.
Accordingly, Roxy and Shamin, after being freed on bail, started looking for training camps in the country's hilly areas, keeping in mind security of the outfit, he added.
Roxy, also known as journalist Mithu, was arrested in 2021 for carrying out militant activities in the hills.
Huji leader Moulana Sayeed asked them to start activities in the CHT area under a new banner after a major crackdown on militants was launched there following the Holey Artisan café attack in 2016, said CTTC officials.
Agriculturist Mohsin, who was recently arrested by CTTC for his links with the outfit, has confessed to a magistrate that he was recruited by Roxy and was taken to Bandarban in 2018 for meeting with Shamin.
Later, several outfit leaders, led by Shamin, had a meeting with "separatist" organisation Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) chief Nathan Bom, also a university friend of Shamin, at a Cox's Bazar Hotel. They struck a "deal" there. Jama'atul Ansar leaders Roxy, Bikash, Ronobir and Tamal were also present at the meeting.
As per the deal, KNF would train members of Jama'atul Ansar in exchange for money.
At the briefing yesterday, the CTTC chief said at least 70 people went "missing" in the last couple of years.
Asked whether the new militant outfit had any plans centering the next national elections, Asaduzzaman said they might have such plans.
Regarding the source of money for the outfit, he said they would be able to know it after arresting Shamin.
He said they launched a "shadow investigation" after seven youths from Cumilla left their homes in August to get involved in militancy. One of them named Abrar Haque was arrested at one stage of the investigation.
Abrar revealed that he had left home after being inspired by Dr Shakir bin Wali, head of the Dawa department of Jama'atul Ansar.
Shakir completed MBBS from Cumilla Medical College. He used to travel to Bandarban once in a month to visit the training camps of the militant outfit. If any of their members fell sick, he would give them treatment. He used to maintain contact with Shamin.
"Shakir also gave treatment to KNF members if they became sick," the CTTC chief claimed.
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