From a postal worker to top militant

Working as a post office worker till 2007, Mashukur Rahman started out on his path to serious crime committing robberies.

In the following years, he was arrested several times for the crime and landed in jail, which was where his life as a militant started as he came into contact with some leaders of militant group Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh.

He was radicalised there, Rab said.

After being released on bail, he became a JMB militant and later in 2017 joined the newly surfaced outfit "Jama'atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya".

Now Mashukur, who goes by the aliases Ronobir and Masud, turned out to be the chief of the military wing and shura members of the outfit.

Khandaker Al Moin, Rab's legal and media wing director, revealed Ronobir's descent into militancy during a press conference today, a day after the elite force members arrested Ronobir and another militant from a spot near Kutupalong Rohingya camp in Cox's Bazar following a gunfight.

The other arrestee is Abul Bashar Mridha, who goes by the alias Alam, Rab said.

Briefing reporters at the Rab media centre, Moin said Ronobir, an expert on improvised explosive devices (IED), became the military wing chief a year ago.

Under the direction of their ameer, he organised several shura committee meetings in different parts of the country including Cumilla.

The Rab official said Ronobir along with other shura members were present at the signing of the agreement between Jama'atul Ansar and separatists in Chattogram Hill Tracts in 2021, regarding training of the military wing members.

He was involved in the disappearance of four youths from Sylhet in November 2021, he said.

"He visited the hill tracts several times and supervised training of military wing members," Moin said.

The other arrestee Bashar was an operative of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh before he joined the Jama'atul Ansar in 2016 or 2017. He was in Rab's list of 50 youths who left their homes to join Hijrah in last two years.