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Police in Bangladesh said yesterday they had arrested the head of a banned Islamist group suspected of planning attacks in the country, and that he had made contact with the Islamic State organisation. |
A police spokesman said the leader of the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) group, Abdullah Al Tasnim, and six others were arrested early yesterday in raids in Dhaka.
“Tasnim has established communication with the Middle East’s ISIS militants,” Monirul Islam said.
“We have arrested him and his aides early today (Friday).”
Twenty-nine-year old Tasnim is leading the outfit in absence of its chief Saidur Rahman, who is currently behind bars.
The Islamic State group is widely regarded as the most violent and powerful organisation in modern jihad and has captured large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
Islam said police had recovered bomb-making materials in the raid, and that the detainees had confessed they were
planning attacks.
Monirul Islam said the banned outfit has opened training centres in Chittagong and Bandarban. “In the primary investigation they said, they are taking training in kungfu and karate. They have females in their groups as well.”
The JMB was highly active around 2005 when it set off hundreds of bombs nationwide between August and December.
It was also involved in spate of bombings on judges and courts, but had been relatively quiet since the then government launched a crackdown on the group and prosecuted more than 1,000 of its members.
In 2007 an army-backed government hanged six JMB members, including its founder and leader Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his deputy.
But the organisation is since believed to have regrouped. In February attackers ambushed a prison van in northern Mymensingh district and snatched three convicted JMB militants after killing a police officer.
Meanwhile, the government is investigating the authenticity of an audio message by Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said.
Kamal said Bangladesh’s armed forces and law-enforcing agencies have the capacity to counter any militancy threat.
“We have training in counter-terrorism. We can combat all forms of threat,” he added.
The security agencies are also co-ordinating with international organisations to prevent
terrorism, Kamal said.
The audio message purportedly delivered by Zawahiri was circulating on the Internet calling on Muslims in Bangladesh to wage jihad against the enemies of Islam.
