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Ataur Rahman Sunny	Ataur Rahman Sunny	Jamaatul Mujaheddin Bangladesh	Bangladesh				20060616	Link
	Ataur Rahman Sunny	Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh	Bangladesh				20051218	Link
	Ataur Rahman Sunny	Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh	Bangladesh		Deceased		20051216	Link

Bangladesh

Jhalakathi judge killer JMB man executed

2016-10-17

[Dhaka Tribune] JMB member Asadul Islam Arif, who was given death penalty in Jhalakathi judges Jagannath Pare and Sohel Ahmed killing case, has been hanged in Khulna district jail. The sentence was executed at 10:30pm on Sunday amid tight security, said Khulna Jail Super Kamrul Islam confirmed the Dhaka Tribune. Khulna Deputy Commissioner Nazmul Ahsan, DIG Prisons (Jessore) Tipu Sultan, Magistrate Md Nur-e-Alam Siddique, Civil Surgeon Dr Md Abdur Razzak and Jail Superintendent Kamrul Islam were present during the execution. Arif and six other JMB leaders including its founder Shayakh Abdur Rahman and second-in-command Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai were sentenced to death on May 29, 2006. The six were executed on March 29, 2007 after the Appellate Division upheld their sentence and the president turned down their mercy petitions. The four others executed were Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) Majlish-e-Sura members Ataur Rahman Sunny, Abdul Awal Molla alias Omar alias Shakil Ahmed and Amjad Hossain alias Khalid Saifullah, and jacket wallah Iftekhar Hassan Al Mamun. Arif, who was absconding during the trial, was tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! on July 10, 2007 and appealed against his sentence. Finally the Appellate Division rejected his appeal on August 28 this year. He is the first death-row convict executed at the Khulna jail after a decade. On May 9, 2004, the jail authorities hanged top criminal Ershad Sikder. Hailing from Bandorgachhia village of Barguna, Arif’s relatives were allowed to meet him at noon. He would be buried at his in-law’s village in Bagerhat’s Morelganj, family sources said. Senior assistant judges of the Jhalakathi court Jagannath Pare and Sohel Ahmed were killed in a suicide kaboom at Purba Chadkati of the town when they were going to the court on a microbus on November 14, 2005 as part of the JMB’s all-out attacks on the courts and law enforcers across the country. Sohel was struck down in his prime while Jagannath departed this vale of tears at a hospital. JMB member Mamun, who was injured in the attack, was arrested from the spot. The JMB recently said that their members had conducted the suicide kabooms after the August 17, 2005 series blasts as the then "government did not respond to their call for establishing Islamic rule in the country positively." After the execution of the six JMB leaders, its members rubbed out Jhalakathi public prosecutor Haider Hossain who represented the state in the case "as the first Dire Revenge." A Jhalakathi court in February last year sentenced to death five members of the JMB for the murder of Haider.

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Bangladesh

Bangla Bhais wife, 2 JMB men jailed

2010-08-11

[Bangla Daily Star] A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced the wife of executed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) leader Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and two JMB men to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment each for possessing explosive substances. The convicts are Fahima alias Farzana, Salahuddin alias Saleheen and Asaduzzaman Chowdhury alias Panir. Judge Mohammad Rezaul Islam of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 handed down the sentence in presence of the convicts at a packed courtroom. Earlier, the prosecution and the defence had completed their arguments and the court recorded statements of 16 prosecution witnesses. According to the prosecution, a team of Rapid Action Battalion on December 18, 2005 raided a residence at Aqua Morolpara under Kotwali Police Station in Mymensingh district. The elite force recovered 57 items of explosives and arrested Saleheen and Panir from the scene. Farzana was later shown arrested in the case. The Mymensingh haul includes four grenades, 12 bombs of different sizes including a light-sensitive one, a sub-machine gun, 80 electric detonators, 20kg ammonium nitrate, gun powder, GI wire, lead azide, lead nitrate, electric circuits, batteries, fuses, snail shells and iron balls used in fishing nets. Two cases -- one under the Arms Act and the other under the Explosive Substances Act -- were filed with Kotwali Police Station of Mymensingh. JMB chief Shaek Abdur Rahman, its second-in-command Bangla Bhai and its military commander Ataur Rahman Sunny were also accused in the cases, but their names were dropped from the charge sheet as they were earlier executed for killing two judges in Jhalakathi district on November 14, 2005.

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Bangladesh

JMB man discloses attack details

2010-07-18

[Bangla Daily Star] Detained acting JMB chief Nazmul told interrogators that he and executed JMB military commander Ataur Rahman Sunny were there when JMB men stabbed eminent author Prof Humayun Azad in front of Bangla Academy in February, 2004. Nazmul, who is also known as Bhagne Shahid and Anwar Alam, made the disclosure during remand at the Detective Branch of police office yesterday, a DB official told The Daily Star requesting not to be named. Nazmul told interrogators that as Prof Azad cried for help he detonated a bomb to clear the way for their escape dispersing people coming forward to aid Azad. Sunny had planned the attack and he had led the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh operatives who carried out the attack, he told investigators, adding that he had provided them with the knives. Nazmul told interrogators that they had also issued several death threats over telephone to Azad to stop, what they claimed, his anti-Islamic writings and opinions. He said Azad did not pay heed to their warnings. Asked about the information they received from Nazmul about the JMB operatives who took part in the attack, the DB official refused to give details for the sake of investigation. However, another DB official said JMB operatives Minhaz and Shamim, who is also known as Sado, took part in the attack among others. On February 27, 2004, they swooped on 56-year-old linguist Azad, a professor of Bangla at Dhaka University, as he was trying to catch a rickshaw to go home from the Ekushey Book Fair at Bangla Academy, sources said. Four to five youths, who were shadowing Azad, emerged from the direction of Suhrawardy Udyan and hemmed him, witnesses had told The Daily Star after the attack. As Prof Azad cried for help, a loud blast rocked the area and the attackers got away, they said. Azad died from what an autopsy said was a heart attack in Munich on August 12 that year. Azad was receiving threats from fundamentalists after his book "Pak Saar Jamin Saad Baad" was published in a national Bangla daily's Eid issue. Meanwhile, a top DB official said they put acting JMB chief Nazmul, the banned outfit's North Bengal chief Shafiqul Islam alias Jamai Rafiq and former acting JMB chief Saidur Rahman face-to-face and interrogated them. The official said they also put detained Jamaat leaders face-to-face with detained JMB leaders and interrogated them yesterday. A DB official said Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, Motiur Rahman Nizami and Delwar Hossain Sayedee claimed that they are not war criminals. They said they just supported Pakistan during the war and it was their political right to do so. The detained JMB leaders used to keep regular contact with Jamaat leaders and some Jamaat leaders used to provide financial help to JMB operatives, claimed a DB source, adding that JMB high-ups were also trying to forge a unity with Jamaat. Jamaat and Hizb-ut Tahrir also tried to keep contact with Detained JMB leaders, a DB source said quoting the JMB leaders.

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Bangladesh

Another JMB kingpin held

2010-06-07

[Bangla Daily Star] Detective branch (DB) of police arrested another top leader of banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh from the city's Sabujbagh on Saturday. On secrete information, a DB team arrested Shahed bin Hafiz from a road at Bashabo in the afternoon. Shahed was a member of the JMB's first Majlish-e-Shura (highest decision-making body of the outfit), DB assistant commissioner Rafiqul Islam, who led the drive, told The Daily Star yesterday. "Shahed was appointed as one of the six shura members at a meeting in which executed JMB chief Shaekh Abdur Rahman was appointed as the amir (chief)," said Rafiqul after primary interrogation. Other shura members were Nasrullah of Thakurgaon, Rakib Hossain Russell alias Hafez Mahmood of Jamalpur, Alamgir Hossain Rana, Salahuddin alias Salehin of Mymensingh and Khaled Saifullah. Shahed got introduced with two other executed JMB leaders Ataur Rahman Sunny and Khaled Saifullah while he was studying at Mohammadia Arabia Madrasa at Jatrabari in the city. The two introduced him with Abdur Rahman and in no time Shahed became a trusted member of JMB. Son of Hafizar Rahman of Pakulla village of Sonatola upazila in Bogra, 40-year-old Shahed has a cloth shop, Classic Fashion, at New Market in the town. DB officials said they also collected Shahed's several photographs that show that he is an expert in martial art. Shahed's arrest came after a couple of weeks into the arrest of JMB supremo Moulana Saidur Rahman with his wife and three other JMB leaders from Dhaka and Narayanganj.

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Bangladesh

JMB chief Saidur held

2010-05-26

[Bangla Daily Star] Police have arrested JMB chief Maulana Saidur Rahman, his wife and three other top leaders of the banned Islamist outfit. They made the arrests in the capital and Narayanganj on Monday and early yesterday. Besides Saidur alias Zafar, the others detained are his third wife Naima Akhter, JMB's military coordinator Amir Hossain alias Sharif and ehsar (full-time) members Nur Hossain alias Sabuj and Abdullah Hel Kafi. During the raids, the cops recovered a huge cache of bomb-making materials, firearms and ammunition and jihadi books. The arrestees except Naima were paraded before the media at the police headquarters yesterday afternoon. There, Inspector General of Police Nur Mohammad said several militant organisations are still operative in the country and they might have an alliance. Replying to a query, he said that since militancy is now a global phenomenon, Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh might have connections with militant groups in neighbouring countries. He also said they are trying to gather if JMB has a suicide squad. The police chief claimed they arrested Saidur, his wife and ehsar member Abdullah Hel Kafi at a house in the city's East Dania on Monday night. A team drawing members from the police headquarters, DMP, SB, Criminal Investigation Department and Detective Branch conducted the swoops, he added. Some sources in law enforcement agencies however say police arrested the JMB chief at least three days before they made the news public yesterday. Additional IGP (admin) NBK Tripura, Special Branch (SB) chief additional IGP Zaved Patwary, additional IGP (rector) Naim Ahmed and Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner AKM Shahidul Hoque were present at the press conference. A handout issued by the police headquarters later said military wing coordinator Amir Hossain alias Sharif and ehsar member Nur Hossain were picked up from Sharif's house at Painadi in Narayanganj early yesterday. A live bomb fitted to a belt usually worn by suicide squad members, several belts, one pistol, two magazines, hand-made bullets and a huge amount of explosives and bomb-making equipment were recovered from Sharif's house and a large stash of leaflets and jihadi books from Saidur's possession. Saidur took over as JMB boss in February 2006, shortly after the arrest of Shaekh Abdur Rahman, the then JMB supremo. The same month that year, Rapid Action Battalion raided his Shibganj house in Sylhet and recovered huge explosives. Saidur had long been on the run. In absentia, he had been sentenced to 14 years in jail in an explosives case. The IGP said JMB's organisational strength had waned much after the execution of Shaekh Abdur Rahman and other top brass. But in recent months, the organisation has been regrouping its cadres. Since the serial blasts across the country in 2005, the law enforcers arrested over 600 JMB leaders and activists. Of them, Shaekh Abdur Rahman, his deputy Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, Rahman's brother Ataur Rahman Sunny, brother-in-law Abdul Awal, suicide bomber Iftekhar Hasan Mamun and Majlis-e-Shura member Khaled Saifullah were executed on March 29, 2008 for killing two Jhalakathi judges on November 14, 2005.

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Bangladesh

Raid raid JMB chief's flat

2010-05-25

The flat raided by law-enforcers Sunday night was a den of banned Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh and the arrestee was its military wing chief Shiblu, claimed police. Police have picked up Shiblu's parents and two siblings for squeezing quizzing and recovered nine more homemade grenades from the flat. Additional Superintendent of Police Zannatul Hasan of the police headquarters said they had information that Shiblu took over the charge of JMB explosive unit after the arrest of former chief Boma Mizan last year. He said Shiblu set up his den there to make explosives for JMB, which is trying to regroup again. Sources say that a 21-member team consisted of police headquarters, Kadamtoli police and Special Branch of police raided the flat to capture Maulana Saidur Rahman, the current JMB chief. Detained Shiblu, however, identified himself as Abu Bakkar Siddique and an operative of banned Islamist outfit Harkatul-Jihad (Huji). Either way he's a dead man walking ... Zannatul, who led the operation Sunday, told The Daily Star that the name of detained JMB explosive unit chief might be Abu Bakkar Siddique but he took the pseudonyms Nazrul alias Shiblu in his organisation. The JMB version of a cut-out? Shiblu was undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital with burn injuries. He was wounded when a homemade grenade exploded in his hands as he was trying to flee by hurling grenades and firing shots at the police Sunday night. The police were raiding the JMB den at South Dania. Burned hands? That's gotta hurt. Always the chance for sepsis ... It appears the Bangladeshi bomb-makers are as incompetent as the Pakistani ones. Djinn-based chemistry fails again. Rab Director (intelligence wing) Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan, however, said as per the information they have, there is no one named Abu Bakkar Siddique or Shiblu at the helm of the military wing of JMB. "If he is taken in TFI [taskforce interrogation cell] for interrogation, we would be able to confirm the identity," he said. Right before they shoot him ... "Who was that incompetent bomb maker?" asked the awed crowd. Additional SP Zannatul reiterated that they had information that JMB operatives have been regrouping again to carry out subversive activities and Shiblu was the chief of the explosives unit. At least 10 people including eight policemen and Shiblu were injured during the raid at the den on the second floor of a four-storey building at Shahjalalbagh of South Dania. Three other militants escaped by hurling bombs at law enforcers. The police also recovered books on jihad and pamphlets that mentioned the name of executed JMB chief Shaekh Abdur Rahman, sources said. Rab and police sources said executed Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai was the first military wing commander of JMB. After Bangla Bhai became the second-in-command of the militant organisation, JMB chief executed Shaikh Abdur Rahman's brother Ataur Rahman Sunny was given the charge of the military wing. Sunny was arrested on December 14, 2005, and Mizan alias Boma Mizan took over the charge. After Mizan's arrest on May 15, 2009, Shiblu took up the job, said sources. Rab officials said Maulana Saidur Rahman took the outfit's helm after Abdur Rahman and five others were executed in 2006. Those burnt hands suggest the Rab have gotten inside the JMB's training cycle. Well done, lads!

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Bangladesh

4 JMB men jailed

2009-10-12

[Bangla Daily Star] A court here yesterday sentenced five years' rigorous imprisonment each to four members of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in an explosives case filed with the Cox's Bazar Police Station. The convicted were JMB Chittagong divisional chief Javed Iqbal alias Mohammad, its explosives expert Zahidul Islam alias Boma Mizan, Ayub Ali alias Abu Jar and Naimuzzaman alias Shohag. Judge Shafiqul Karim of Chittagong Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal also penalised each with a fine of Tk 5,000 in default of which they will have to suffer another year's imprisonment. According to the deposition of the case, police arrested Ayub Ali with 53 types of explosives in his possession Fifty three seems like rather a lot... at a rental house in Nur Para under Cox's Bazar headquarters on December 11, 2005. The mills of justice grind slowly... In this connection, Sub Inspector Abul Hashem of Cox's Bazar Police Station filed a case under Special Powers Act 1974 on December 13 accusing seven persons, including JMB chief Shaekh Abdur Rahman, its military chief Ataur Rahman Sunny and Mashiur Rahman alias Milon. Police submitted the charge sheet of the case on February 28, 2007 and the charge was framed on March 31 this year. Abdur Rahman and Sunny have already been executed, and Mashiur Rahman was exempted from the case. Public Prosecutor Ayub Khan said the accused confessed that they stockpiled the explosives to attack on Brac, other NGO offices and churches. "It was them damned kufrs, y'r honer -- they wuz askin' fer it! Whut's a good Muslim t'do?" The court delivered its verdict yesterday after hearing 18 witnesses, he added. With this verdict, the JMB Chittagong divisional chief Mohammad is awarded 229 years' imprisonment. So much for getting to know the grandchildren.

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Bangladesh

JMB, Huji talk to operate together

2009-08-17

[Bangla Daily Star] No effective measure was taken by any government to punish the patrons of the outlawed Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) that launched an unprecedented countrywide bomb attack on August 17, 2005. The law-enforcement agencies during their drives against militancy have so far arrested over 550 JMB militants including many of their top tier leaders. However, no initiative by the law enforcers was ever seen to bring the patrons of these militants to book. A number of victims in northern Rajshahi region individually filed cases against some alleged patrons of JMB. But no comprehensive effort has been seen from the government to take steps against these alleged patrons. Former BNP minister Aminul Haque has been convicted by a court for patronising JMB and some other BNP leaders have been accused in cases filed by victims in Rajshahi region. Following the March 2007 execution of JMB kingpins Abdur Rahman, Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and four others, the government showed its firm stance to detect the outfit's political patrons and take stern action against them. The patrons of JMB would face the same punishment [execution] if they are found guilty, announced the then law adviser of the caretaker government. "The law enforcers are looking for the godfathers. If they are netted and we learn about their roles, they will face the same punishment," he said in March 2007. It has already been over two years when present Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nur Mohammad said: "We have already tentatively identified the patrons of the organisation [JMB]." The ruling Awami League government also announced to take actions against the militant patrons. Mysteriously enough, no action has been taken against anyone although names of some former BNP-Jamaat-led ruling alliance's political leaders, lawmakers and ministers surfaced as patrons of JMB in the northern districts. The investigators working at the diktat of the then government high-ups also did not take any move to detect and expose them. The JMB has meanwhile been trying to regroup to regain its strength. Moreover, the outfit is being united with another banned Islamist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami's (Huji) Bangladesh chapter despite having some differences of opinion. Sources say under the initiative of present JMB chief Moulana Saidur Rahman and Huji leader Omar the two outfits have recently held several meetings to discuss their unity move. Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) Director General Hasan Mahmood Khandaker said they are aware of the latest move by the militants. "We are aware of their present activities and we are after them," said the Rab DG without elaborating. But sources inside Rab, which is leading the anti-militant drive for last few years, say they did not yet infiltrate into the militant organisations. "If we could plant our sources in the militant outfits, we could have learned their every update soon after the development. And as we couldn't do it yet, we now operate drives based mainly on the information we obtain from the arrested militants," says a Rab official involved in the drive for long. The sources say both JMB and Huji are divided into various groups due to internal feuds. But yet they have initiated the unity move to take revenge on the government for the execution of six JMB leaders and also the arrest of the leaders and activists of both the organisations. The sources add the JMB and Huji leaders have past relations as executed JMB chief Abdur Rahman formed his outfit in 1998 after defecting from Huji. Talking to The Daily Star last night, former adviser to the caretaker government and former IGP SM Shajahan said, "It would not be possible to uproot militancy soon until taking measures against their patrons or guardians." He said, "We have significant achievement in anti-militant drive, but militancy is not a small problem. It should not be considered that militancy has been solved after arresting and executing some of their leaders and members." Shajahan said before the blasts on August 17, 2005 the country had witnessed some other major blasts. "But we saw blame games in the political arena and misleading investigation to divert our eyes from the real focus, which inspired the real culprits. "It was unexpected and no politics should be on the issue as we need united efforts involving people to solve this serious problem," he continued. "The total picture of the country's militancy problem is not clear yet as we don't know their many things including sources of money, arms, explosives and training. We think executed Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai are top most leaders of JMB, but I think they can have their patrons." "We are also looking into whether anyone is working behind the scene and as part of the process, we already arrested a number of key persons who might be treated as the masterminds or patrons," the Rab DG said. "If anybody is found involved, we must go for action against them." Some law enforcers involved with the anti-militant drives believe the "Anti-Terrorism Law", which has already been passed would help take legal steps against the masterminds and patrons. They think earlier there was no adequate law to bring the patrons or masterminds to book. STATISTICS Sources say the law-enforcement and intelligence personnel arrested 555 JMB leaders since the August 17 blasts. Of them, 80 were arrested this year. Among the arrested JMB men, 46 are policymakers, 103 ehsar [full-time] members, 10 gaiyeri ehsar members, 17 suicide squad members and 379 are lower level leaders and activists. The sources say Rab and police detained around 1,500 people suspecting them as JMB men. But after verification, only 555 of them were learned to have had links with JMB. Among the arrestees, six top brass leaders -- Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai, Abdul Auwal, Ataur Rahman Sunny, Khalid Saifullah and Iftekhar Hussain Al Mamun -- were executed.

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Bangladesh

Rohingya rebels trained JMB men

2009-05-19

Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) had close links with Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), an insurgent group in the Myanmarese state of Arakan, JMB explosives expert 'Boma Mizan' revealed in interrogations. Sources close to Rab interrogators said Mizan and some other JMB operatives received training from RSO arms experts in a camp near Myanmar border in 2002. Now executed JMB chief Shaekh Abdur Rahman sent them for the training. In exchange for arms training, JMB's explosives experts trained RSO men to improvise and detonate bombs and grenades. Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (Huji) Bangladesh, another outlawed Islamist outfit, too had strong connections with RSO. Officials from the police, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and some intelligence agencies have been interrogating Mizan, who is on a seven-day remand after being captured by Rab on May 14. The sources said JMB military wing's former chief Ataur Rahman Sunny and activist Galib are among those trained by arms experts of the Rohingyan outfit. Sunny was executed in March 2007 along with five other militant kingpins including his brother Abdur Rahman and JMB operations commander Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai. Galib is behind bars. "Mizan said their training from RSO was conducted somewhere in Chittagong hill tracts and lasted 10 days. He did not give anymore details," an investigator told The Daily Star in return for anonymity. Mizan and the others, who took training from RSO, later trained JMB operatives across the country, said the investigator. Shaekh Abdur Rahman himself would used to liaise with RSO. He would also maintain ties with Huji. Some persons claiming to be former Huji men told this correspondent that in the late 80s and 90s many of their fellow operatives took arms training from Rohingya rebels. They said the RSO men trained the Huji operatives in greater Chittagong, particularly in deep forest of the hill districts. RSO had some make-shift camps for their shelter and training. A good number of RSO-trained Huji cadres went to Arakan to fight for the Rohingyas, they added. Sources said Huji took RSO help in securing weapons as well as funds. The Rohingyan group had extensive supplies of arms, and for funds it would count on a number of Muslim-majority countries especially those in the Middle East.

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Bangladesh

Mirpur ammo seizure led to Comilla raid

2008-12-25

Tuesday's busting of two JMB operatives with grenades and bomb in Comilla is another blow at the law enforcers who had a feeling that the militant outfit would not be able soon to organise again after the execution of their key leaders. To their utter dismay, the law enforcers came to know how the operatives of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh were organising again under the leadership of Maulana Saidur Rahman, the outfit's new ameer after Abdur Rahman's execution in March last year. The recovery of grenades and bomb and arrest of Aiyub Ansari alias Masud and Abdul Alim alias Nayeem was the outcome of an intelligence move based on information disclosed by recently arrested JMB operatives Mohammad Hanif and Rafiqul Islam, officials of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) said. Investigators also came to know from other JMB operatives arrested at different times that Saidur is hiding somewhere in the country and leading the regrouping move as the outfit's chief. Intelligence officials have learnt that Saidur is a former ameer of Habiganj district unit of Jamaat-e-Islami. His son AHM Shamim, chief of JMB's IT unit, was arrested on September 7, 2005 during the crackdown on JMB and is now in jail. "After Abdur Rahman's arrest in Sylhet in March 2006 we came to know that Saidur Rahman helped the JMB chief a lot when he was hiding in the north-eastern district. But we did not know then that Saidur was going to be the next chief of the militant organisation," Col Gulzar Uddin Ahmed, additional director general of Rab, told The Daily Star yesterday. "Shamim was a close aide of Ataur Rahman Sunny [Abdur Rahman's younger brother and chief of JMB's military wing]," Gulzar said. But even after the arrest of Shamim and Sunny in 2005, investigators did not have information on Saidur's involvement with the JMB let alone his status as its next chief. While Abdur Rahman was looking for a safe hideout, Saidur arranged a house for him at Tilagarh in Sylhet town and ensured security, food and "everything he needed" until his arrest, said an intelligence official. A Sylhet court tried Saidur in absentia and in January 2007 sentenced him to 14 years' rigorous imprisonment in an explosives related case. When the Rab mobilised forces in Sylhet looking for him, Saidur went into hiding. The elite force conducted several raids to arrest him but to no avail. "JMB operatives have changed their communication strategy. They now rarely use phone for communication and rather exchange information physically as they used to do just after coming into operation openly," an intelligence official told The Daily Star, requesting anonymity. Hanif, arrested on November 16 in Mirpur with explosives including grenade-making materials, and Rafiq, arrested on October 25 in Shibganj upazila of Chapainawabganj, told investigators about their activities in different areas. "It is certain that they [Hanif and Rafiq] had a plan for subversive activity. But we are yet to know whether they had any plan to lodge any attack on Khaleda Zia's rally or they had other targets," said another Rab official. Meanwhile, Masud and Nayeem were brought to Dhaka yesterday morning for primary interrogation at the Rab headquarters and were taken back to Comilla in the evening. Investigators would interrogate the two if the court places them on remand. Rab men recovered three improvised hand grenades and a 10kg bomb from a JMB den in Nabiabad village under Debidwar upazila of Comilla and arrested the two JMB operatives, around four hour after BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia addressed an election rally 4km away. Two militants Shahed and Mostak managed to flee. A Rab-11 official said their forces defused the grenades and detonated the 10kg bomb recovered on Tuesday. The Rab official said police would seek remand for Masud and Nayeem after they are handed over to Devidwar police. Security was beefed up yesterday in border areas following the arrest of the militants and recovery of explosives in Debidwar. Meanwhile, Rab men recovered two more improvised grenades from a pond and a canal in Nabiadi village early yesterday.

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Bangladesh

Chittagong JMB chief sent to Durance Vile™ for 10 years*

2008-09-10

A court here yesterday awarded 10 years' imprisonment to Javed Iqbal alias Mohammad, 28, Chittagong divisional chief of outlawed Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), in a case filed in connection with countrywide serial blasts on August 17, 2005. Judge Shafiqul Islam of the Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal gave the verdict, sentencing Mohammad to jail for bombing at GEC intersection in the port city as part of the serial blasts. The court also fined him Tk 5,000, in default he is to suffer another year in jail. Two other accused--Abu Jarr and Delwar Hossain Jahid--were acquitted of the charge. The court exempted JMB kingpins Abdur Rahman, Siddiqur Rahman alias Bangla Bhai and Ataur Rahman Sunny from the case since they were executed in the judge killing case last year. Javed Iqbal has so far been awarded 124 years' imprisonment in different terms in nine cases. He has the death sentence on 12 systems is also an accused in seven other cases, which are now under trial at different courts in Chittagong.

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Bangladesh

4 JMB cadres get 26yrs for bomb attack on Ctg court

2008-05-01

A court here yesterday sentenced four members of outlawed militant outfit Jamaatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB) to 26 years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) each for bomb attack on the court of the then Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Akram Hossain in October 2005. Judge Shafiqul Karim of Chittagong Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal gave this judgement. The four convicts are JMB Chittagong regional commander Jabed Iqbal alias Mohammad, activists of Tangail JMB branch Shahadat, Abul Malek alias Laltu and bomb expert Jahidul Islam alias Mizan alias Bomb Mizan. Of them, Mizan is absconding. JMB chief Abdur Rahman and JMB military chief Ataur Rahman Sunny were dropped from the trial as both were executed following an earlier verdict, sources said. JMB activists Laltu and Shahadat on October 3 in 2005 hurled a bomb at CMM Akram Hossain's courtroom on the ground floor of Chittagong Court Building. People present there caught the two while they were fleeing and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) later caught Jabed Iqbal. Sources said the three gave confessional statement admitting their involvement in the bomb attack. Charges in the case were pressed on May 8, 2006, accusing six. Five witnesses gave their deposition. Public Prosecutor Quamrul Islam Sajjad stood for the state in the trial while the militants refused to have any lawyer for them.

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