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Bangladesh

Some politicians helped Lashkar put down roots

2009-08-11

[Bangla Daily Star] Besides the local chapter of Huji, some political leaders have been helping Pakistan-based militant organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to operate in Bangladesh. Investigators learned about the political patrons from two recently-detained LeT operatives and Indian nationals--Mufti Obaidullah and Moulana Mohammad Mansur Ali. They are now working to gather more about them, said sources in the intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Officials involved in the ongoing crackdown on militants said they have information that some politicians might have been sheltering LeT cadres as per secret deals with the terrorist group. Though law enforcers had detained several LeT operatives in the past, they formally admitted the outfit's existence here only last month after the Detective Branch of police arrested Obaidullah and Mansur. Before that, they had been denying reports about foreign militants ensconced in the country. A former investigator of the Rapid Action Battalion told these correspondents earlier that they had come to know about the existence of LeT and at least seven of its political patrons in Bangladesh during the last BNP-Jamaat-led government rule. But they could not carry the investigation through as they had limitations with the four-party alliance in power. Sources said investigators are confirmed that banned Islamist outfit Harkatul-Jihad-al Islami, Bangladesh, has all along been backing LeT operations here. The local political links became a focus of the investigation after names of some political leaders came up during interrogations of the detained Lashkar men. DB Deputy Commissioner Monirul Islam who leads the agency's drive against militancy said, "We are now verifying the information and names we've got from the detained Lashkar leaders." He, however, would not say anything about identity of the political leaders suspected of aiding and abetting LeT in Bangladesh. Sources close to DB say some of the suspects are local level leaders of a political party and some are quite prominent at national level. Investigators would also examine if any of the political patrons of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh are involved in any foreign militant organisation like LeT. The law enforcers hope they will be able to make headway towards unearthing the LeT's political patrons once they capture some other Lashkar men in the country. Mufti Obaidullah and Moulana Mansur meantime disclosed that their organisation has been active in Bangladesh for the last 14 years. They also said local LeT operatives have links to the network of absconding Indian underworld don Daud Ibrahim and Huji Bangladesh leaders. Both the detainees had been teaching at local madrasas since their illegal entrance to Bangladesh in 1995. "Obaidullah had been organising Bangladeshi youths for jihad on instructions from Ameer Reza, an Indian holed up in Pakistan," DMP Commissioner AKM Shahidul Haque told newsmen after Obaidullah's arrest. Talking to reporters while being paraded before the media, Obaidullah said four other most wanted Indians are also hiding in Bangladesh. Following up information obtained from him, DB police arrested LeT leader Mansur Ali from Dakkhin Khan area in the capital on July 22. Mansur told reporters at the DMP headquarters that he had close relations with local Huji top brass including Mufti Hannan, Abdur Rouf, Abu Taher and Sheikh Abdus Salam

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Bangladesh

Mansur Ali wanted by US too

2009-07-22

[Bangla Daily Star] Detained Indian national and Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Moulana Mohammad Mansur Ali is on two lists prepared by the intelligence agencies of India and the US for his involvement in militancy, sources said. According to sources, Mansur's position is 16th on the list prepared by the US. A total of 280 names of militants who took part in the wars in Afghanistan and Kashmir are on the US list while another 77 militants on the Indian list. DB sources said they have collected the two lists from two countries recently. The listed militants are the citizen of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and South Africa, sources added. Sources said some 13,000 Bangladesh nationals were Afghanistan and Kashmir war veterans. According to the sources, hailing from Padmapukur village under Bagdah Police Station in North 24 Pargana district of West Bengal, Mansur came under Indian intelligence observation after Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF), which works together with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, founder Asif Reza Khan and some of his close aids were arrested from Gujrat and later killed in an encounter with the Indian law-enforcers in 1994. Asif Reza and his associates were arrested from a meeting. But Mansur, however, had managed to flee, sources said. Deputy Commissioner Monirul Islam of DB-South told The Daily Star that Mansur had regular communications with Pakistani leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba and ARCF. Besides, he had close links to the senior leaders of Harkatul Jihad al Islam (Huji) in Bangladesh and also to the network of international mafia don Daud Ibrahim. Monirul Islam also said "Mansur had also contact with Daud Ibrahim's close aid Indian national Zahid Sheikh and Daud Merchant." Daud Merchant and Zahid Sheikh were arrested from the country about two months back. Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, detained Indian militant Mansur admitted that he is one of the most wanted Indians and he knows a number of Huji leaders in the country as they were his fellow fighters in the two wars.

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Bangladesh

Another Lashkar man captured

2009-07-22

[Bangla Daily Star] Detective Branch of police has arrested another Indian national linked to Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the capital. The arrestee, Moulana Mohammad Mansur Ali, was also an organiser of Asif Reza Commando Force, the terrorist outfit responsible for the attack on American Centre in Kolkata on January 22, 2002. DB police claim they made the arrest swooping on a madrasa in Dakkhin Khan area on Monday night. They carried out the raid following up information gleaned from Mufti Obaidullah, an Indian and LeT operative captured in Dhaka recently. Mansur was paraded before the media at the DB headquarters yesterday. DB Deputy Commissioner Monirul Islam said the militant leader entered Bangladesh illegally from India in 1995. Under the alias Habibullah, he worked as teacher in different Islamic seminaries. Before joining Madrasatur Rahman at Saodagarbari of Dakkhin Khan, Mansur taught at Nurani Madrasa at Moralimore, Bagharpara Madrasa in Jessore, Porasunda Maktab in Habiganj and Tikarpur Madrasa at Nababganj in Dhaka. Obaidullah too had been holed up in the country as a madrasa teacher. An Afghan war veteran, Mansur was above him in the LeT hierarchy. He told reporters he was a student when he joined the Afghan war against the then Soviet troops. He said he had close relations with local Huji top brass including Mufti Hannan, Abdur Rouf, Abu Taher and Sheikh Abdus Salam. He however denied having links to any attacks staged by the Harkatul Jihad al Islami operatives in Bangladesh, another banned Islamist organisation. Trained in operation of AK-47 assault rifle, machinegun, rocket launcher and anti-aircraft weapons, Mansur returned to India in 1993. He moved back and forth between Pakistan and Afghanistan after the war ended in 1989. Back in India, he joined fellow Afghan war returnees in efforts to recruit youths to fight the Indian army in Jammu and Kashmir, read a DB press release. He came under Indian intelligence watch in 1994. After arrest, Mansur kept claiming that he is from Shriramkathi village under Jhikargachha upazila in Jessore. DB officials took him there for crosscheck and found his claim to be false. DC Monirul said Mansur participated in at least 25 battles in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Daud Merchant, detained Indian underworld operative, gave police leads about the LeT leaders hiding in Bangladesh. Merchant, a close aide to mafia don Daud Ibrahim, is one of those accused of killing music baron Gulshan Kumar in Mumbai in 1997. He and his associate Zahid Sheikh were arrested one and a half month ago.

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