Bangladesh News

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday captured 25 Islamist militants while they were receiving military training in a remote jungle in Mymensingh.

The captured militants include two prospective suicide bombers and a veteran of the previous Afghan war.

The capture came a few days after the government had alerted all law enforcers about reorganisation of militancy in the country.

Rab, which has been interrogating the arrestees, believes that the militants belong to outlawed Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) that carried out 500 bomb blasts simultaneously across the country on August 17 last year.

The elite battalion also recovered some bomb-making materials and training equipment from a militant den at Jibontola village under Bhaluka upazil in the district.

A 30-member team of Rab-9, led by Lt Col Nurul Momen and Flight Lt Faisal, carried out a 15-minute raid yesterday on the remote jungle at Jibontola village and captured the militants.

Rab intelligence was keeping an eye on the camp, some 800 yards away from Jibontola Madarassa, for several days before carrying out the raid yesterday at 3:00pm.

“The youths, all aged between 20 and 22, were taking lessons on combat using bamboo sticks when we raided the place,” said a Rab official who participated in the raid.

The militants even tried to resist arrest using the sticks but later surrendered, he added.

The arrestees, all bearded with caps on, claimed they were students of the madrassa and were exercising as part of their regular studies, but Rab claimed three of them admitted that they were receiving military training there.

Rab recovered some electric wires, several small bulbs, three mobile SIMs, pieces of iron used in fishing nets, several transistor circuits and a container of powder.

The elite force personnel however could not determine if the container had explosives or gunpowder.

Among the arrestees, Rab sources identified Abdur Rouf of Madaripur, who allegedly supplied bombs to 27 districts for the August 17 blasts. Rouf, 42, a teacher of Jibontola Jamia Islamia Nurul Ulum Koami Madarasa, had been arrested several times before from Faridpur and Cox’s Bazar in 1993 and 1995. On September 19, 2003 he was arrested again along with 18 others including the madrasa principal Shahidul Islam from a BNP leader’s house at Boalmari in Faridapur. After his arrest from Faridpur he told reporters that he had received guerrilla training in Pakistan in 1989 and participated in Afghan war against former USSR for four years. He is also trained in operating AK-47 assault rifle, other modern weapons, and grenades.

“Our recent intelligence report said Rouf, who had been absconding since the blasts, arrived in Mymensingh, so we tightened our vigilance here,” said another Rab-9 official.

The arrestees are Kazi Nurul Alam Siddique, Tofazzal Hossain of Jhalakathi, Ibrahim Khalil, Anwar Hossain of Chandpur, Safayet Hossain, Masudur Rahman, Jamal, Sahabuddin of Comilla, Mahmudul Hassan Sumon of Barisal, Nizamuddin, Afzal Hossain, Ershad Hossain, Arshaduzzaman, Abdul Quiyyum, Tofazzal Hossain of Faridpur, Saiful Islam, Abdul Hannan, Omar Faruq of Shariatpur, Mohammad Ibrahim, Mohibulla of Bhola, Maksudur Rahman, Mohammad Quamruzzaman of Mymensingh, Yasin of Pirojpur, Mir Hossain of Noakhali, and Abdur Rouf.

No case was filed till filing of this report at 10:00pm last night in this connection.

On July 26, the government sent urgent messages to law enforcers and intelligence agencies asking them to raise the level of their vigilance across the country following information that JMB militants are reorganising under different banners.

According to the alert buzz, operatives of JMB might carry out further attacks at any place anytime.

Our correspondents, however, also reported that the militants are trying to regroup at haor and beel areas of northern and north-eastern regions after a downturn in their activities following arrests of most of their top leaders.