Police asked to crush revitalised JMB

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Since the members of the banned Islamist outfit, Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, are reportedly regrouping under new leadership, the home ministry on Tuesday directed the law enforcing agencies to crush the revitalised group and arrest its leaders.
The directive was issued when intelligence officials investigating Islamist militancy informed the home secretary, Abdul Karim, of the re-emergence of the outfit at a meeting in the ministry.
The home secretary asked all the law enforcing and intelligence agencies to launch massive drives across the country to immediately arrest those who have taken the leadership of JMB under a new guise.
‘The JMB has formed a new committee to run the organisation after the execution of the six front-ranking leaders in March,’ an investigator told the meeting, and disclosed that one Moulana Saidur Rahman, a former Jamaat-e-Islami leader from Habiganj, is at the helm of the new leadership.
Hundreds of activists of different Islamist militant outfits, especially operatives of the JMB, who went into hiding
after the arrest, trial and execution of six JMB kingpins, are trying to regroup under the new leadership, said intelligence sources.
The organisational activities of the JMB suffered a severe blow due to the execution of Abdur Rahman, Siddiqul
Islam alias Bangla Bhai, Ataur Rahman Sunny, Abdul Awal, Khaled Saifullah and Iftekhar Hasan Al Mamun for killing two judges in Jhalakathi.
‘We cannot sit idle when the militants are regrouping in different forms and names,’
said a senior home ministry official after the meeting of the home secretary-led committee that was formed to probe the August 17 serial blasts case.
He said the Islamofascist outfits were closely observing the country’s situation and waiting for an opportunity to strike again.
The meeting, which used to be held every month to review the progress of the investigation of the countrywide bombings, took place after a long gap of eight months due to the violent political situation.
The meeting, chaired by the home secretary, also decided to launch a demotivation campaign in the country so that people, especially the youths, cannot be lured to the wrong path in the name of Islam.
The home secretary, however, ruled out the possibility of any attack by the JMB.
‘We don’t apprehend any such act but we are very alert so that the militants can’t emerge again,’ said Abdul Karim, adding that he would involve religious leaders and imams to launch the anti-militant campaign with renewed vigour.
The district committees, formed to monitor the cases filed in connection with the serial blasts and the suicide bombings, will also be re-activated, officials said.
A total of 264 cases have been filed with regard to the blasts in which some 723 persons were arrested. Of the 199 punished so far, 135 were executed, including the six top
JMB leaders, and 70 were awarded life-term imprisonment.
The meeting, also attended by top bosses of the Rapid Action Battalion, Criminal Investigation Department and other intelligence agencies, emphasised the need for quickly concluding the probe into the rest of the unsolved cases and submission of charge-sheets.
‘We want influence-free and proper investigation so that not a single culprit can escape punishment,’ said Abdul Karim.

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