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Bangladesh

JMB active despite arrest of top brass

2010-08-17

[Bangla Daily Star] Law enforcers fear a backlash from Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) despite detaining the top brass of the banned militant outfit in recent months. Rab and police officials said the JMB is still a concern for them as some dedicated operatives are active in the organisation. Some of the militants have training on making high-powered explosives like belt bombs. The JMB is reportedly in a shambles due to arrest of its chief Saidur Rahman, military wing chief Shiblu and acting chief Anwar Alam alias Nazmul over one and a half months since July 12. The officers said Sohail Mahfuz, who is oldest among three serving JMB Majlish-e-Sura members, might have taken over as its helmsman. "Sohail Mahfuz is known as an arrogant person. He might launch bomb attacks against those he would consider as enemy," said a top Rab official seeking anonymity. Rab Director General Hassan Mahmood Khandker told The Daily Star yesterday they have kept a grip on JMB activities. Even then, he considers it a potential threat. Rab sources said there is also a chance that one of two sura members -- Shaheed alias Osman and Dhaka University graduate Siddiqur Rahman alias Mostafiz who worked as an adviser to Saidur -- has assumed the post of JMB ameer. The JMB stepped into the spotlight as a hardcore militant outfit through synchronised bomb attacks in 63 of 64 districts on August 17, 2005. In subsequent attacks, they killed a number of people including two judges in Jhalakathi. Since August 17 blasts, crime busters have so far arrested 985 JMB leaders and operatives, including 607 captured by Rab alone. The arrestees include its founding ameer Shaikh Abdur Rahman who along with his second-in-command Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and four other leaders was executed on March 30, 2007. Police sources said a total of 322 cases were filed with different police stations since the countrywide blasts. Of the cases, police have submitted charge sheets in 289 cases and final reports in 25 cases. Eighteen of the cases are under investigation. Trials of 115 cases have been completed in which 51 persons got death sentence, 131 life imprisonment and 184 different terms. Some 318 people have been acquitted and 174 cases are still under trial. Of the 322, a total of 154 cases were lodged in connection with the August 17 bomb blasts. Of the cases, detectives have submitted charge sheets in 133 cases and final reports in five cases. Sixteen cases are still under investigation, CID sources said. The sources also said trials were completed in 81 cases in which 29 accused were sentenced to death, 80 life imprisonment and 79 persons to different terms. Some 57 cases are still under trial.

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Bangladesh

JMB now runs without chief

2010-07-20

[Bangla Daily Star] Banned Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) is now without a chief and sura committee, according to the statement of detained JMB leaders Bhagne Shahid and Jamai Rafiq. Detective Branch (DB) officials said during interrogation JMB acting chief Anwar Alam alias Bhagne Shahid claimed that the outfit has became without a chief in the face of massive drives against JMB activities. DB officials said they had placed Shahid face-to-face with detained JMB chief Saidur Rahman during the interrogation.

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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

Jamaat trio might be shown held in JMB raid case

2010-07-17

[Bangla Daily Star] Detained Jamaat leaders Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojahid and Delwar Hossain Sayedee might soon be shown arrested in a case filed in connection with the recovery of nine grenades from a JMB den in the capital's Kadamtoli area on June 24. A top official of the Detective Branch (DB) of police said they would seek a court order within a day or two to show the trio arrested in the case based on JMB chief Saidur Rahman's information. According to the official, Saidur said Jamaat and JMB activists were collecting grenades and other explosives for subversive operations across the country to foil the trial process of war criminals. "Saidur also said that Jamaat had provided financial support and other assistance for the destructive operations to keep the government and law enforcers busy with something else rather than the war crime trial," added the official. Meanwhile, DB police yesterday brought detained acting JMB chief Bhagne Shahid from Bogra and the banned outfit's North Bengal chief Shafiqul Islam alias Jamai Rafiq from Gaibandha to the capital to interrogate them face-to-face with Saidur. Sources said DB has already started interrogation to verify Jamaat's involvement in planning destructive operations. The top DB official said, Saidur disclosed that Anwar Alam alias Bhagne Shahid had been coordinating the operations according to Jamaat's plan. Shahid escaped the arrest in Kadamtoli on June 24 exploding a grenade and injuring several policemen. He was caught from Bogra on July 12.

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Bangladesh

Law enforcers hunt for hidden JMB arms

2010-07-16

[Bangla Daily Star] Banned militant organisation Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh has destroyed all the explosives it had in northern region, claimed detained outfit leader Anwar Alam. Law enforcers, however, have doubt over the account. Police suspect Anwar Alam alias Nazmul alias Bhagne Shahid might have huge explosives and firearms stashed in the region. Anwar, the acting JMB chief, told police during an interrogation yesterday that they had announced northern region as an area free from bomb-making factories, interrogators said. "As part of a new strategy taken around three months back, they [the organisation leaders] have already dismantled their explosives in the area," Bogra Superintendent of Police Humayun Kabir told The Daily Star quoting Anwar. A top police official, who led the drives to catch Alam and former JMB chief Saidur Rahman, said, "We suspect Alam has kept explosives hidden in dens in northern region." "We're worried about it as we seized powerful belt-bombs in Narayanganj in May. Those bombs can kill 50 to 60 people at a time if blasted in a gathering," added the official seeking anonymity. I assume belt-bombs are a local variant on the suicide vests, considered the height of fashion amongst the Palestinians. The Bogra SP also quoted Anwar saying, Saidur Rahman took the decision to make the region a peaceful area so that locals get attracted to the outfit and law enforcers do not disturb its members anymore. How terribly, terribly clever of them. Sneaky, too. Anwar Alam, arrested on July 12 in Bogra, is now being grilled by Bogra police. He is likely to be brought to the capital today to put him face to face with Saidur and detained JMB military commander Shiblu alias Shishir. Intelligence Wing Director of Rapid Action Battalion Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan said, "We suspect JMB still possesses a good amount of explosives and hand made bombs and grenades." Ziaul Ahsan said they are on efforts to seize explosives, if JMB possesses any. I smell a few upcomming moonlight drives to hunt arms caches. Those are always good for a "Crossfire" accident. In an interrogation statement of JMB's ex-military commander Zahidul Islam Sumon alias Bomaru Mizan read Bhagne (nephew) Shahid is operating a bomb-making factory in north Bengal. The Daily Star obtained a copy of the statement. Mizan was arrested on May 14 in 2009. The following day, 11 bombs, a pistol, and a huge stash of chemical residues, plastic explosives, grenade casings, fuses and detonators were seized from the capital's Mirpur area. The clues given by Mizan led Rab to launch a number of unsuccessful drives in several northern districts to unearth the factory. Detained Saidur has already admitted to detectives that his outfit has several hundred explosives, handmade bombs and grenades stashed at different dens, said the DB official who interrogated the JMB man. The Bogra SP also said Anwar claimed that as part of a new strategy they have deactivated their military wing in northern region and are now focusing on new recruitment from the region. The JMB boss also admitted that they made a good number of bombs and grenades in northern region to foil the 2008 national elections. He also said explosives might have been stashed in Dhaka region. Police said Nazmul alias Bhagne Shahid, a highly motivated JMB member, is accused in several cases filed at different places in the country. Some of the cases are in connection with assaulting police and arms looting in Joypurhat, Grameen Bank robbery in Pabna, lootings of BRAC banks in Natore and Tangail, bomb attacks on four cinemas in Mymensingh and attack on Prof Humayun Azad. Yet another demonstration that jihadis are nothing more than jumped-up gangsters.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Muttahida Qaumi Movement condemns attack on Nasreen Jalil

2005-07-03

MQM leader Nasreen Jalil on Saturday accused Jamaat-e- Islami (JI) activists of attacking and harassing her at the Karachi Airport on Friday night. Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club (KPC), she said that, when she arrived from Islamabad, JI workers who had gathered to welcome the former nazim of Karachi, Naimtullah Khan, harassed her and used abusive language against her in the presence of MNA Laiq Ahmad, MPA Nasrullah Shaji and Naimatullah Khan. She said they were chanting slogans against Altaf Hussain. “In my entire political life, I have never faced such harassment as this. And it was done by those who claim respect for women,” she said. She urged the president, the prime minister, the chief minister and the governor to take cognisance of the ugly incident. Dr Farooq Sattar, the deputy convenor of the coordination committee the MQM, on the occasion, alleged that the “thunder squad” of the JI was involved in “the attack” on Nasreen Jalil. He said that, the JI, sensing defeat in the local bodies’ polls, was trying to provoke MQM workers. He said the JI’s demand for LB polls under army showed they believe in dictatorship and not in democracy. Anwar Alam, in charge of the coordination committee, and MNA Haider Rizvi were also present. The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) on Saturday contradicted allegations against JI activists of misbehaviour with Nasreen Jalil, a member of the coordination committee of the MQM. In a statement, MMA Sindh MPAs Nasrullah Khan Shajee, Younus Barai, and Hameedullah Khan Advocate claimed that no incident of manhandling of the women MQM leader took place at the Karachi Airport, when she passed through the crowd gathered at the place to welcome the former CDGK nazim, Naimatullah Khan, on Friday night, who had just arrived from Islamabad. They said the JI and MMA leaders and activists always believed in decency and held women in high esteem. The MPAs said that Nasreen Jalil was provided with a safe passage out of the airport by JI activists, and that she safely proceeded to her destination in a vehicle waiting for her at the parking lot.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Shia imams meet MQM body

2004-10-18

KARACHI: Maulana Ikram Tirmizi led a delegation of imams of Shiite mosques to call on Anwar Alam, who is in charge of the MQM's Coordination Committee. Anwar Alam said that the MQM respected all mosques and imambargahs and wanted people from all religious schools of thought to lead their lives peacefully according to their respective creeds. He said people were fanning sectarian fanaticism by killing innocent worshippers in mosques and imambargahs.

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