Friday, April 26, 2024
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 for 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 are — 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.
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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), joined together to start the activities of this 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, Tk 3 lakh per month and food expenses of all KNF members were to be borne, according to RAB.
Earlier on October 10, five men, including three youths, who apparently left home to join militant groups have been 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.
The incident sparked a huge sensation across media along with social media and RAB started an investigation to rescue the victims and arrest the accused.
On September 1, one of the missing youths, Shartaz Islam Niloy, 22, returned home.
On October 6, the battalion members arrested seven people, including four missing youths, for involvement with a militant group in a drive conducted in Munshiganj, Narayanganj and Mymensingh following the information collected from Niloy.
On interrogation, the arrestees revealed that initially, the members of the organisation used to target youths from different parts of the country, including Cumilla.
