Home ›› 05 Nov 2022 ›› Governance
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has said militant outfit 'Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya' provided Tk 17 lakh to the separatist group Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) to buy arms to train up their members.
The militant group had an agreement with the KNF to provide them with shelter and training in exchange of money, Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of RAB’s Legal and Media Wing said on Friday, reports UNB.
“The outfit gets funds from different sources to serve their purposes,” Moin was speaking at a press briefing in Dhaka’s Karwan Bazar over the arrest of four more operatives of the militant outfit in Laksam upazila of Cumilla.
Acting on a tip-off, members of RAB-11 and the Detective Branch of police in Laksam conducted a drive and apprehended the four on Thursday night.
Some leaflets and books on radical views were also seized from their possession.
The arrestees were — Md Abdul Kader, 24, Md Ismail Hossain, 22, Muntasir Ahmmed alias Bachchu, 23, and Helal Ahmed Zakaria, 33.
During interrogation they confessed to planning sabotages in different places across the country, said Commander Moin.
They gave concrete information about six council or Shura members of the militant group including its amir (head) Mahmud, he said.
With the latest arrests, 26 members of the new militant outfit have been arrested so far.
In 2019, the Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya (Jamatul Ansar of Eastern Hind) was formed.
Some leaders and activists of different levels of banned militant groups in Bangladesh including Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Ansar Al Islam and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B), made an ally and formed the radical militant group, said the RAB official.
On October 21, the battalion said they arrested 10 people, including seven members of the newly launched militant outfit and three members of KNF, in Bandarban and Rangamati.
In 2021, the amir of Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya had an agreement with the CHT-based armed group KNF regarding militant training in the area till next year, said RAB.
As per the agreement, Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya paid Tk 3 lakh per month and food expenses of all KNF members, according to RAB.
Earlier on October 10, five men, including three youths, who apparently left home to join militant groups were arrested by the RAB members in the capital's Jatrabari and Keraniganj.
On August 23, eight youths from Cumilla Sadar upazila went missing and a general diary was lodged with police in this regard after two days.
