Home ›› 07 Oct 2022 ›› Governance
The Rapid Action Battalion on Thursday said they have traced a new militant outfit ‘Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya’ while investigating into reported going missing of several youths at places in the country.
The RAB said they arrested seven people including four youths who had left their homes to join the new extremist outfit.
RAB’s legal and media wing director Commander Khandaker Al Moin at a press briefing at RAB Media Centre at Karwan Bazar in Dhaka said some members of banned militant organisations like Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Ansar al-Islam and HuJI-B got mobilised in 2017 and floated the new outfit with a new name in 2019.
Moin said they are yet to know any specific information about their plan and how many people this group could motivate and requite. They have recruited some homeless youth and provided them with physical and motivational training in remote chars in Bhola, he added.
Moin said RAB arrested Hossain Ahmed, 33, Neshar Uddin alias Umayer, 34, Bani Amin, 27, Imtiaz Ahmed alias Rifat, 19, Hasibul Islam, 20, Roman Shikder, 24, Md Sabit, 19, in separate raids in Narayanganj, Munshiganj and Mymensingh on Wednesday night.
Among the detainees, Rifat, Hasibul, Roman, and Sabit left their home for ‘hijrat’ weeks ago, he said.
Imtiaz and Hasibul are from Cumilla while Hossain, Umayer, Boni and Sabit are from Patuakhali, and Roman is from Gopalganj.
Moin said that Hossain was a madrassa teacher in Patuakhali and Neshar was a scientific officer at a government institution in Bhola. They joined this organisation in 2019 and were responsible for recruiting and supervising members. They were preparing fresh recruits to carry out terror attacks.
During primary interrogation, the arrestees confessed that Hasib and Rifat came to know about the organisation from Habibullah, imam of Koba Mosque in Cumilla, a year ago. Later, Habibullah inspired them to get involved in extremist activities.
“Among the eight young men who had gone missing from Cumilla, Sartaz Islam Niloy, 22, returned to his Kalyanpur home on September 1 and later RAB took him into custody. Following interrogation, RAB came to know details on others,” he said.
I made a mistake, this is the wrong path: Niloy
Shartaz Islam Niloy, 22, left home along with other youths after being inspired to militancy by his cousin. He told journalists at the RAB Media Centre that the wrong interpretation of Islamic scriptures made him inspired to militancy.
When he was asked to leave his family, Niloy could not accept it. But he was forced to leave home. The recruiters asked him to go to Patuakhali for training and upon reaching there he realised that militancy is the wrong path. Later, he looked for an opportunity to leave the outfit and return home.
Asked about armed training, Niloy said he was out of home for only four to five days and he was not selected for such training till then.
But he heard of preparations for militant attacks.
