AMN / WEB DESK
The elite security force of Bangladesh Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested seven youth including four who had left their homes to join a newly formed militant group named ‘Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya’.
Briefing media in Dhaka on Thursady, the Director of RAB’s Legal and Media wing Commander Khandaker Al Moin said that some leaders and activists of the banned militant groups including Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Ansar Al Islam and Harkat-ul-Jihad-Al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) formed the new group.
Out of the seven arrested militants four are from Patuakhali district, two from Cumilla and one from Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, said the RAB spokesperson.
RAB conducted separate drives in Munshiganj, Narayanganj and Mymensingh districts to arrest them after being tipped off. The security agency also recovered some leaflets and books spreading radicalisation and a tablet from the arrestees.
One of the arrested militants told RAB that the activities of the new group started in 2017 when the activists of some other banned militant groups merged together. He further informed that in 2019, Jamatul Ansar fil Hindal Sharqiya (Jamatul Ansar of Eastern Hind) was formed in which some leaders of the banned outfits JMB, Ansar-Al-Islam and HuJI-B joined to start its activities.
Based on the information of one of the group members, RAB arrested one Nesar from Dhaka-Mymensingh highway area. Nesar worked as a scientific officer in a government institution in Bhola and got involved in militant activities before 2019. Another arrested militant named Rifat was a final year graduate student while the other, Hasib was a higher secondary student.
The RAB said that the militants were trained in the Char areas of Bhola and Patuakhali districts and so far 15-20 people have joined the new group. They received training into radical ideology, as well as operational and organisational activities to carry out terrorist work, said the RAB spokesperson.
Seven students in the age group of 17-25 had left their homes on August 23. They knew each other and left home without mobile phones. After that another group of 7 people went missing from Patuakhali, Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gopalganj districts for two to three months under similar circumstances, reports UNB. Besides, four youths from Sylhet have been missing since November last year.