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Bangladesh
2 sentenced to death for blasts in Shariatpur
2013-01-29
[Bangla Daily Star] A Shariatpur court yesterday sentenced two activists of the banned Islamist outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
The JMB is said to be the youth front of Al Mujahideen, the parent organization that began working toward establishing Bangladesh as an Islamic state in the mid 1990s which remains obscure even today. Other organizations, such as Jama'atul Jihad, JMB, Jagrata Mohammedan Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), Hizbut Tawhid, Tawhidi Janata, Islami Jubo Shangha, Islami Shangha, Al Falah A'am Unnayan Shanstha and Shahadat-e al Hiqma are believed to be part of the Al Mujahideen network. The JMB at its peak was reported to contain at least 100,000 members, and an alleged 2,000-man suicide brigade, few of whom actually went kaboom!. JMB allegedly received financial assistance from individual donors in Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Libya. Reports have claimed that funding of JMB by international NGOs like Kuwait based Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage (RIHS) and Doulatul Kuwait, Saudi Arabia based Al Haramaine Islamic Institute and Rabita Al Alam Al Islami, Qatar Charitable Society and UAE-based Al Fuzaira and Khairul Ansar Al Khairia. The top leadership of JMB was captured in 2005 and hung in 2007, which pretty much shot their bolt.
to death for their involvement in the 2005 series kabooms in the district.

As part of its countrywide terror campaign, the JMB on August 17 that year simultaneously blasted several bombs at the office of Shariatpur deputy commissioner, court premises, in front of Dak Bungalow and in Palong Bazar area of the district.

That day, the Islamist outfit went kaboom! bombs in 63 districts out of 64.

The two to die for the Shariatpur blasts are Kamruzzaman alias Swapan, 27, and Malek Bepari alias Malek Zehadi, 28.

The duo was present when the judge of the District and Sessions Judge's Court Mohammad Sajedul Karim pronounced the verdict around 1:00pm, said Public Prosecutor Mirza Hazrat Ali.

Following the blasts, Shariatpur Sadar Police Station Sub-inspector Badruzzaman filed a case against some unidentified people.

Later, investigation officer of the case Kamal Hossain submitted the charge sheet accusing the two along with the then JMB chief Sheikh Abdur Rahman and its operations commander Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai.

The court accepted the charge sheet on January 2, 2006, and framed charges against them on January 18 the same year.

Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai were among the six bully boyz executed in March 2007 for killing two Jhalakathi judges.

Their executions marked the end of country's first overt militancy campaign that rattled the nation through its 2005 coordinated blasts and suicide kabooms.
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Bangladesh
RAB discovers JMB den after arrest of outfit's top bomb expert
2009-05-16
You'd think the JMB would figure out that they can't beat the RAB, but no, they keep making bombs and skulking around in the worst upazilas ...
Rapid Action Battalion on Friday discovered a den of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)
A den? That's not good, if you're in it. Dens tend to have fewer escape routes than an open field , f'r instance
as the elite anti- crime troops carried out daylong raids following the arrest of a top explosive expert of the militant outfit after years of manhunt, officials said.

RAB sources said they discovered a JMB den, which appeared to be a training camp cum bomb making plant of the outlawed group, at East Monipur area in Mirpur in line with the confessions of arrested Jahedul Islam Sumon alias Mizan and his wife Sharmin Haque Lata.
Got the honey to do a little bomb-building, did he? She smuggled the ingredients under the burqa?
Poor wifey. She didn't even rate an alias...
They said some 11 bombs and huge materials or chemicals used to make bombs were discovered from the scene. "We are still gathering information as the RAB operations ended just an hour ago," a RAB spokesman told BSS.
Jeez-o-pete, that kind of thing is dangerous! The thought of hanging out where jihadis were making bombs gives me the shivers... but not a frisson -- I am a lady.
RAB officials earlier said they arrested Mizan on the basis of an intelligence tip-off but they had to face difficulties subsequently as they later raided his rented house where his wife detonated bombs injuring herself and their two minor children.
It was for families like this that social workers were invented.
"Mizan was earlier jailed for 20 years by a court after trial in absentia and we were looking for him for years as he was trying to regroup JMB and training the militants on explosives and impoverished grenades," the RAB spokesman said.

Another RAB official familiar with the arrest sequences said when they raided Mizan's residence at about 10.30 pm yesterday along with him, "he gave his wife a coded instruction knocking the door saying, how are you? I am sick."
"Knock-knock."
"Who's there?"
"I'm sick."
"Okay, I'll pull the pin!"
"Immediately afterwards, a bomb went off inside forcing the RAB men to run for cover along with Mizan," a newsman who witnessed the operation staying with the RAB troops said.
"Duck! She's gonna explode!"
The RAB allows embeds? Where do I sign up?
The explosion wounded Mizan's wife Sharmin Haque Lata and her two- year son and two-month old daughter while she gave in after more than three hours of resistance until early this morning when they were rushed to a city facility for treatment.
"Okay, honey, it's off to the Dhaka Medical Center for you, and to DCFS with the tykes!"
The owner of the house said Mizan rented the second floor of the four- storey apartment building last month identifying him as a construction businessman.
Good lord -- the man is a liar as well?!?
Construction, demolition...two sides of the same coin, really.
JMB suffered a huge setback in view of a massive anti- militant security clampdown in the past several years which also saw the execution of six kingpins of the outfit including its founder Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his second in command Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai in 2007.
But what about the Number Three? Number Threes are key for an organization seeking to rebuild.
RAB officials said the militant groups like JMB were trying to regroup in different names in view of the massive anti- militant campaign as the government so far banned four of the outfits - JMB, HuJI, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and Shahadat-e al Hikma.
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Bangladesh
11 JMB men get life for sedition
2008-04-18
A Rajshahi divisional court yesterday awarded life terms to all 11 militants of Jama'aul Mujahidin, Bangladesh (JMB) in a sedition case filed for taking combat training to fight against the state in 2005. Judge M Sajedul Karim of the first court of Rajshahi divisional special judge also fined the accused Tk 20,000 each, in default of which they are to spend two more years in jail.

The convicts include Enamul Haque and Golamur Rahman alias Golam Mostafa, both regional JMB commanders and followers of executed militant leader Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai and arrested militant kingpin Asadullah Al Galib respectively.

The others sentenced are – Rajshahi University Arabic student Ibrahim Hossain, madrassah teacher Jaharul Islam, madrassah students Merajul Islam, Shah Wali Ullah, Zakir Hossain, Mansur Rahman, Biplob Hossain, Abu Zafar and Mozammel Hossain.

They were arrested from Mozammel's house at Puthiapara in Paba upazila on July 18, 2005 while they undergoing combat training. Police recovered diaries and notes from them including details on 'restricted military training on arms, ammunition and detonators', guerrilla warfare and revolutionary Islamic slogans and songs for Jihad. The training included making simple and sophisticated bombs including time bombs and remote control bombs, operating rifles, etc. Local and foreign personnel provided the trainings, according to the prosecution.

After investigation, sub-inspector Zahidul Islam, the then officer-in-charge of Paba police station, lodged a sedition case with a magistrate court on September 4, 2005 and pressed charges against them on February 6, 2006.

Delivering the judgement the court said, prosecution allegations that the militants were engaged in anti-state activities and that they had been receiving 'exclusive combat training on arms, ammunition and detonators' with ulterior motives against the state was proved without any doubt. The court examined a total of eight prosecution witnesses in the case and evidence recovered from possessions of the accused.

One of the sentenced militants, Mozammel, hurled abuses at the police and journalists after the sentence was read out.
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Bangladesh
Bangla Bhai aide Khamaru arrested
2007-03-10
Police arrested Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai's close aide Mahtab Khamaru at a mosque near his house at Talgharia in Bagmara upazila after Juma prayers yesterday.

Rab men arrested Khamaru on November 27, 2005, but they had to release him following a ministerial diktat. Since then he was absconding. Khamaru, son of Hamirkutsa Union Parishad Chairman Muhammad Ali Khamaru, was wanted in several murder cases including those of Osman, Mukul and Dipankar, police said. The killings took place during Bangla Bhai's Jagrata Muslim Janata, Bangladesh (JMJB) operations in 2004. Khamaru was one of those who led the JMJB procession at Rajshahi on May 23, 2004. He addressed a rally in front of the law enforcers and threatened journalists for writing against Bangla Bhai.
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Bangladesh
Bangladeshi militants appeal hanging sentence
2007-01-29
Five top militants sentenced to be hanged for a spate of bomb attacks which killed dozens of people in Bangladesh will appeal to President Iajuddin Ahmed for mercy, police said on Sunday.

They said mercy petitions, handed to prison authorities by the five including Shayek Abdur Rahman and Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai would be sent to the president shortly as the hangings were expected to be carried out by the middle of February.

They were sentenced for killing two judges in the southern town of Jhalakati in November 2005, police said. Shayek and Bangla Bhai, head of outlawed groups Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, respectively, were also blamed for masterminding and participating in a series of bomb blasts in August 2005, in their pursuit of introducing Sharia law in Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim democracy. The militants now can only be saved by the president, legal officials said.
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Bangladesh
Bangladeshi court stays execution of militants
2006-10-03
DHAKA: Bangladesh's Supreme Court has ordered a stay of execution for four Islamist militants sentenced to death for bomb attacks that killed at least 30 people last year, a court official said on Sunday. The militants included Shayek Abdur Rahman and Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai, heads of two outlawed Islamist groups seeking the introduction of sharia-based Islamic law in Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim democracy.

The two, who head the groups Jamaatul Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, appealed for clemency on Friday. Their petition is to be heard on Oct. 15 and execution has been suspended until its settlement, said Fazlul Karim, secretary of the Supreme Court. Bombs wrecked the judges' car as they headed to court.
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Bangladesh
Bangladesh court acquits 23 over concert bombing
2006-06-30
A Bangladesh court on Wednesday acquitted all 23 accused in a bomb attack that killed 10 people in the country’s southwest seven years ago and ordered the case be re-investigated, court officials said. The bomb went off during an open-air music concert in the town of Jessore, 300 kilometres from Dhaka, on March 6, 1999. “The accused have been acquitted as police failed to produce any clear evidence against them,” a court official quoted judge M Abul Hossen Bepari as saying.

Bepari questioned the charges filed against the accused, saying recently detained Islamist militants had claimed involvement in the attack. “Police should re-investigate the case and file charges afresh against the real culprits with enough evidence to substantiate the charges,” a defence lawyer quoted the judge as saying.

Security officials said detained Islamist militants including Shayek Abdur Rahman, chief of the outlawed Jamaatul Mujahideen group, and Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai, leader of another outlawed group Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, confessed during police interrogation to involvement in the concert bombing. The two Islamist groups want to turn Muslim dominated Bangladesh into a sharia-based Islamic country. In May, a court sentenced Shayek and Bangla Bhai along with five others to death by hanging for their involvement in killing two judges late last year.
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Bangladesh
B'desh court sentences seven militants to death
2006-05-30
DHAKA - A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced seven top Islamist militants to death for killing two judges in a bomb attack in southern Jhalakati town in November last year. “They will be hanged until death,” Judge Reza Tarik Ahmed said in his verdict.
And then leave them out for a while to deliver the message ...
The seven included chiefs of two outlawed groups -- Shayek Abdur Rahman of Jamaat-ul Mujahideen and Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh.

“I pronounce this highest penalty as involvement of the accused has been proved beyond doubt,” the judge said in a courtroom packed with lawyers and security officers. All but one of the convicts are in custody, police said. The other one is on the run and was tried in his absence.

Two judges were killed when a bomb was thrown at a vehicle carrying them to a court in Jhalakati, 300 km (187 miles) south of the capital Dhaka, on November 14, 2005.
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Bangladesh
Bangladesh troops bust rebels' camp in Myanmar
2006-03-06
Troops busted a jungle hideout in southeast Bangladesh and seized weapons which they believed were stored by rebels from neighboring Myanmar and could also be used by Islamist militants fighting for sharia law in Bangladesh. Different groups of Myanmar rebels are fighting against the authorities of Yangon in west Myanmar's Arakan region, bordering Bangladesh, while two outlawed Islamist groups are seeking to turn Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim democracy, into an Islamic state. "Two anti-tank missiles, a heavy machine gun, three sub-machine guns, five AK-47 rifles and 7,000 (rounds of) ammunition along with battle accessories were seized on Saturday," a senior security official said on Sunday.

Officials said militants who were at the hideout fled before the troops came in. Troops seized huge caches of weapons and explosives several times over the past year from the Chittagong Hill Tracts region, believed brought from across the Myanmar frontier, but gave no official statement on who they were meant for. Myanmar rebels cross into Bangladesh territory when being pursued by Yangon troops, and are often arrested by Bangladesh police.

Bangladesh has intensified a countrywide hunt for Islamic militants since Thursday after the country's top Islamist radical, Shayek Abdur Rahman, was captured in the northeastern town of Sylhet and later brought to Dhaka for interrogation. Shayek led Jamaat-ul Mujahideen, which along with another militant group Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, was banned in early 2005 for criminal activities. The chief of the second group, Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai, is still at large and may take over the operations leadership of the militants in Shayek's absence, intelligence officials said. These two groups were blamed for a countrywide wave of bomb attacks, including suicide bombings, which killed at least 30 people and wounded 150 since August 17, 2005.
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Bangladesh
Bangla Bhai busted by RAB!
2006-03-06
Just like the Mounties, they always get their man!
Bangladesh's second top Islamist militant was captured on Monday after a gunbattle with security forces in a northern district, police said. They said Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai, chief of the outlawed Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh group, was arrested along with his wife at his hideout with two of his associates in the district of Mymensingh. His capture comes four days after another top fugitive Islamist, Shayek Abdur Rahman, was detained in the northeastern town of Sylhet.

A militant was killed and an officer of elite Rapid Action Battalion force suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Bangla Bhai was also injured, but it was not immediately known how seriously.

Security forces had surrounded Bangla Bahi's hideout since Sunday midnight and closed in before sunrise. The militant and his men threw bombs at the security forces and later opened fire, triggering a shootout, police said. It was not known if anyone was killed or wounded during the fighting.

Shayek Rahman led another outlawed Islamist group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen.
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Bangladesh
Bangladesh busts Rohingya Islamist arms cache
2006-03-05
Troops busted a jungle hideout in southeast Bangladesh and seized weapons which they believed were stored by rebels from neighbouring Myanmar and could also be used by Islamist militants fighting for sharia law in Bangladesh.

Different groups of Myanmar rebels are fighting against the authorities of Yangon in west Myanmar's Arakan region, bordering Bangladesh, while two outlawed Islamist groups are seeking to turn Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim democracy, into an Islamic state.

"Two anti-tank missiles, a heavy machine gun, three sub-machine guns, five AK-47 rifles and 7,000 (rounds of) ammunition along with battle accessories were seized on Saturday," a senior security official said on Sunday.

Officials said militants who were at the hideout fled before the troops came in.

Troops seized huge caches of weapons and explosives several times over the past year from the Chittagong Hill Tracts region, believed brought from across the Myanmar frontier, but gave no official statement on who they were meant for.

Myanmar rebels cross into Bangladesh territory when being pursued by Yangon troops, and are often arrested by Bangladesh police.

Bangladesh has intensified a countrywide hunt for Islamic militants since Thursday after the country's top Islamist radical, Shayek Abdur Rahman, was captured in the northeastern town of Sylhet and later brought to Dhaka for interrogation.

Shayek led Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, which along with another militant group Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, was banned in early 2005 for criminal activities.

The chief of the second group, Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai, is still at large and may take over the operations leadership of the militants in Shayek's absence, intelligence officials said.

These two groups were blamed for a countrywide wave of bomb attacks, including suicide bombings, which killed at least 30 people and wounded 150 since August 17, 2005.

"We have intensified watch on the borders with Myanmar and India to try to keep Bangla Bhai and other militants within our territory and catch them as soon as possible," said an officer with the Bangladesh Rifles border guards.
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Bangladesh
India holds Bangladesh 'suspect', admits it's Sheikh Rahman
2006-01-24
Police in India have arrested a man in connection with a series of bomb blasts in Bangladesh last August. Obaidur Rahman, described by police as an Islamic militant, was held in the state of West Bengal. But the state police say reports that they arrested a leader of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) group, Sheikh Abdur Rahman, are not true. Two other suspects were also arrested with Obaidur Rahman in the police raid in Murshidabad district.

UPDATE: MUMBAI, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The head of a Bangladeshi Islamist group blamed for a wave of bomb blasts in that country has been arrested in neighbouring India, Indian police said on Tuesday. Shayek Abdur Rahman, head of the outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen group, was arrested in India's West Bengal state on Sunday, but police said the news had been kept a secret for the sake of the investigation. "We have arrested Shayek Abdur Rahman. We are interrogating him to find out his role in the multiple blasts in Bangladesh," Raj Kanojia, police inspector general, told Reuters by phone from Kolkata, capital of West Bengal.
Hope it is very painful

Rahman and another Islamist leader, Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai, who heads the radical Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh group, had been missing since nearly 500 bombs exploded simultaneously across Bangladesh on Aug. 17 last year.
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