Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Bangladesh

7 to hang for Holey Artisan terror attack

2019-12-06

[Dhaka Tribune] A Dhaka court on Wednesday delivered the verdict in the Holey Artisan Bakery attack case, sentencing seven New JMB bully boyz to death and acquitting one of all charges.

The July 1, 2016, carnage saw 23 people killed, including 17 foreigners and two coppers, and ended when an army commando team stormed the cafe premises in Gulshan and shot the five attackers dead the next day.

The seven condemned to death are: Md Aslam Hossain alias Rashed alias Ryash, Jahangir Hossain alias Rajib Gandhi, Abdus Sabur Khan alias Sohel Mahfuz, Hadisur Rahman Sagor, Rakibul Islam Regan, Shariful Islam Khaled, and Mamunur Rashid Ripon.

The court ordered hanging them till death, apart from fining them Tk50,000 each.

The verdict, pronounced by Judge Md Majibur Rahman of the Anti Terrorism Special Tribunal, drew shouts of "Allahu Akbar" from the convicts, who showed no remorse.

Of the seven, Jahangir, Aslam, Shariful, and Sabur, were among those who planned the attack, Hadisur and Ripon supplied the arms, and Regan was the religious trainer of the attackers.

Jahangir also recruited the five cafe attackers: Nibras Islam, Mir Sabeh Mubashir, Rohan Imtiaz, Khairul Islam Payel, and Shafiqul Islam Uzzal.

The eighth accused in the case, Mizanur Rahman alias Boro Mizan, was acquitted of all charges as the charges were not proved beyond doubt by the prosecution.

All eight were either top leaders or members of New JMB, a splinter faction of banned Death Eater 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 and probably defunct today. Other organizations, such as Jama'atul Jihad, JMB, Jagrata Muslim 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 exploded. 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.
, or JMB.

The accused were brought to the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court premises around 10:15am, where security was beefed up ahead of the verdict in the case filed for the deadliest terror attack in Bangladesh’s history.

The state counsels said they were happy with the verdict and will appeal to a higher court if necessary, against Boro Mizan’s acquittal.

Defence lawyers said the witness testimonies and evidence were inconsistent, and they will definitely move to the higher courts challenging the verdict.

Inspector General of Police Dr Javed Patwary said the police was pleased with the sentencing, save for the acquittal of Boro Mizan. He said they will ask the prosecution to appeal against it.

Link

Bangladesh

Holey Artisan attack case to be moved to the Anti-Terrorism Special tribunal

2018-07-27

[Dhaka Tribune] Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court has ordered that all documents, including the charge sheet, of the case filed over the 2016 terrorist attack on Gulshan’s Holey Artisan Bakery be sent to the Anti-terrorism Special Tribunal.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Saifuzzaman Hiru issued the order on Thursday after scrutinizing the case dockets, according to court sources.

Earlier in the day, Metropolitan Magistrate Nurunnahar Yasmin had accepted the charge sheet and sent it to him for observations.

Sources said the case documents would be sent to the special tribunal in Dhaka on Sunday.

The trial of the case at the tribunal will start after its Judge Md Mujibur Rahman accepts the charge sheet.

Last Monday, police had pressed charges against eight leaders and members of bad boy outfit New JMB in the sensational case.

Six of the accused are Jahangir Alam alias Rajib Gandhi, Rashedul Islam alias Rash, Sohel Mahfuz alias Hatkata Mahfuz, Rakibul Islam Reagan, Mizanur Rahman alias Boro Mizan, and Hadisur Rahman Sagor.

They are currently behind bars having confessed in court their roles in the attack on the upscale eatery in the capital’s diplomatic zone.

Police have prayed to the court to issue arrest warrants against two other ~~bandidos~~ bully boyz ‐ Shariful Islam Khalid and Mamunur Rashid Ripon ‐ who are still on the run, and reportedly hiding in India.

The Sherlocks had also dropped former North South University teacher Hasnat Reza Karim’s name from the charge sheet as the charges against him could not be proved.

However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
Metropolitan Magistrate Fahad Bin Amin denied his bail plea on Thursday.

Link

Bangladesh

Chargesheet in Sholakia blast case due next week

2018-07-27

[Dhaka Tribune] Investigators are set to submit the charge-sheet, accusing five holy warriors, in the case over the suicidal kabooms near Sholakia Eidgah in Kishoreganj in July, 2016 next week, reports BSS.

"We have already prepared the charge-sheet in the case over the blasts near Sholakia Eidgah in Kishoreganj. We hope to submit the charge-sheet before the court against five forces of Evil by July 31," Superintendent of Kishoreganj police Mashruqur Rahman Khaled said.

When contacted, the Investigation Officer (IO) of the case and also Inspector (investigation) of Kishoreganj Sadar cop shoppe, Arifur Rahman said he will send a petition to the legal wing of the Home Ministry on Sunday seeking approval for the charge-sheet in the Sholakia blast case.

He hoped that police will be able to submit the chargesheet before the court by Monday, if the ministry gives its nod soon after receiving it.

"We have found involvement of 23 forces of Evil in the attack. But five of them will be accused in the charge-sheet as 18 others have been killed in different assaults of the law enforcers," he added.

Of the accused, Rajib Gandhi
Apparently not an alias.
and Sohel Mahfuz gave confessional statements under section 164 before the court. Both Rajib and Sohel were included in the list of accused in the charge-sheet of Holey Artisan Cafe attack case.

In his statement, Rajib Gandhi confessed that the New-JMB had taken preparations to carry out two large-scale kabooms (at Holey Artisan Cafe, at Gulshan in the capital and Sholakia Eidgah in Kishoreganj) mainly to upset the government and attract the attention of international holy warrior organizations.

Police in their investigation found that New-JMB front ranking leaders Tamim Chowdhury, Major Zahid, Akash, Abir and Don separately visited the place of occurrence one day (July 6, 2016) ahead of the attack on July 7, 2016, around a week after the Holey Artisan Cafe attack.

Four people, including two coppers, a woman, and a suspected assailant, were killed in the attack.

Link

Bangladesh

New JMB ‘spiritual leader’ remanded

2017-03-04

[Dhaka Tribune] A Dhaka court has granted a seven-day remand against New JMB’s alleged "spiritual leader" Maulana Abul Kashem in a case filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Satyabrata Shikder passed the order on Friday afternoon when investigation officer CTTC Inspector Jahangir Alam produced him before the court with a 10-day remand plea.

Earlier he was shown tossed in the slammer
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
in a case at Dhaka’s Mirpur model cop shoppe.

"Maulana Kashem also headed a faction of the original Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh bad boy group," Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Deputy Commissioner (media) Masudur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune.

The New JMB group is affiliated with the international terrorist group Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
that eyes establishing Shariah Law in the country, and spreading its jihad to Myanmar’s Rakhine State and parts of India.

Maulana Kashem had been working at the Okharabari Madrasa of Dinajpur. CTTC unit officials in October last year said that Maulana Kashem had been under their surveillance.

Most of its leaders including its military and operations chief Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury have been killed in shootouts with the police or arrested after they killed over two dozen people at a Dhaka restaurant on July 1 last year.

The detectives are now looking for eight to ten second-tier leaders of the New JMB, who were involved in at least three dozen attacks since September 2015.

The once-mighty JMB, which was formed in 1998 and banned in 2005, has now split into several small groups due to the detention of its second ameer Maulana Saidur Rahman in 2010 and the execution of five top leaders, including its founder Shayakh Abdur Rahman, in 2007.

Maulana Kashem declared him chief of the unit after the arrest of Maulana Saidur.

Former Majlish-e-Sura member of the JMB and a death-row convict, Salahuddin alias Salehin now heads the old JMB faction. He has remained absconding since February 2014 when JMB members snatched him from a prison van.

Bangladesh-origin Canadian citizen Tamim Chowdhury came to Bangladesh on October 5, 2013 from Syria and tried to form an umbrella group of bad boy outfits.

Tamim later met Maulana Kashem in July 2015 when he helped Tamim to reunite old JMB members.

After the death of Tamim, the operations wing came under the lead of Faridul Islam Akash and later Nurul Islam Marjan, both killed in raids by the police’s CTTC unit.

Another leader of the outfit Musa alias Mainuddin alias Mosiuddin is now leading its operations.

A dozen other top and second-tier leaders of the New JMB group are still absconding. They include Basharuzzaman alias Abul Bashar alias Chocolate, Sohel Mahfuz alias Hatkata Mahfuz, Ripon, Khalid, Junayed Hasan Khan, Iqbal, Manik, Mamun, Azadul Kabiraz and Badal.

Link

Bangladesh

New JMB runs arms smuggling syndicate

2016-11-12

[Dhaka Tribune] Using loopholes in border security, the terrorist group New Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) is now smuggling arms into Bangladesh from India, police have said.

Members of the old JMB hiding across the border in West Bengal are the suppliers of these weapons.

The two groups mainly use the Chapainawabganj and Joypurhat borders to bring in the arms, sometimes putting them inside mango baskets and sometimes inside shopping bags.

The weapons originate in Malda and Bihar in India.

Information from the interrogation of four New JMB members in jug and also some Indian arms smugglers had unveiled this criminal network, a senior officer from police Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTTC) unit told the Dhaka Tribune.

The four turbans are Mizanur Rahman, Toufiqul Islam, Abu Taher and Selim Miah, who have revealed quite a few sensational information in interrogation, the officer said.

Ahmedul Islam, Assistant Commissioner (AC) of CTTC, admitted yesterday that the police had uncovered some information on this and were analysing them.

The outgoing director general of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed admitted that the force had limited capability to check smuggling of this nature.

"We share a long border with India and we do not have sufficient capacity to check these activities," he said.

"We have information that arms smugglers use sacks of rice or onion in big trucks to bring arms, but we have no vehicle scanners. It is quite impossible to check all these vehicles manually," Maj Gen Ahmed said.

BGB had placed demands to the Home Ministry for better equipment, the DG said.

He pointed out that the lack of cooperation from law enforcement further aggravated the problem.

"BGB members often check trucks manually based on intelligence reports and are sometimes successful in apprehending smugglers. The problem is, we do not got updates from the Sherlocks once we turn the criminals in," he said.

Investigators say most of the arms used by New JMB came from India, even the modern AK-22 rifles. The modified AK -22 came from Bihar and entered Bangladesh through Chapainawbaganj.

CTTC chief Monirul Islam says New JMB brought in the weapons through their own channels.

"The Death Eaters did not take assistance from professional arms smugglers," he told the Dhaka Tribune.

"Although we have information that the AK-22s were modified in India, we are not sure where they were manufactured," he said.

"We are looking into their place of manufacture."

According to Sherlocks, New JMB leader Sagor of Joypurhat, Mizanur Rahman alias Boro Mizan of Gaibandha and Mizanur alias Chhoto Mizan worked as arms carriers, bringing the weapons through the border, while former JMB leader Sohel Mahfuz, who currently works for New JMB, looks after the syndicate’s activities in West Bengal.

New JMB leaders Nurul Islam Marjan and Rajib Gandhi handled the arms after they were delivered into Bangladesh by the carriers.

Sanowar Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of CTTC, said: "We have not found any connection between New JMB and any arms smuggler. They basically collect them through their own sources and bring them into Bangladesh through Chapainawabganj border."

According to sources, New JMB leader Shariful Islam, Mamunur Rashid and Junayed Khan have fled to India after the Gulshan attack and joined hands with Sohel Mahfuz there, trying to increase their capacity by collecting firearms.

"We are now trying to go the source of New JMB’s arms capacity and are conducting drives," ADC Sanowar said.

Link

Bangladesh

‘Mahfuz supplied grenades for Gulshan attack’

2016-09-04

[Dhaka Tribune] Investigators have found that explosives expert Sohel Mahfuz alias Hat-kata Mahfuz, a big shot of the main JMB who later became part of the New JMB, was linked to the July 1 attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery at Gulshan

"We have information that Sohel Mahfuz supplied the grenades used by ~~bandidos~~ murderous Moslems in the Gulshan cafe attack," Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit chief Monirul Islam said yesterday.

CT unit sources say Mahfuz was a founding member of the JMB, which was formed in 1998 by former Jamaat leader and Ahle Hadith member Shayakh Abdur Rahman and declared banned in 2005. Abdur Rahman and some of his associates were hanged in 2007.

Mahfuz has expertise in making bombs. His left hand was blown off in a kaboom, but he can use a firearms with the other hand.

He is a relative of Gulshan attack’s operation commander Nurul Islam Marjan. In his student life, Mahfuz was a member of Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
, the radical student wing of Jamaat and later joined the JMB.

Hailing from Kushtia, Mahfuz declared himself its chief after the arrest of its second ameer Saidur Rahman in 2010 but it triggered conflict within the group. Later Mahfuz went to Burdwan of India and from there tried to raise a new faction of the JMB with the help of Maulana Abul Kashem, who later became its acting chief.

CT unit sources say Mahfuz fled to India and returned home a couple of years ago and started working with the New JMB faction, coordinated by Bangladeshi-born Canadian citizen Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury. He played a key role in supplying arms and bombs for its members.

Detectives could not confirm Mahfuz’s position in the outfit.

Monirul said Marjan was an important leader of the New JMB and a close aide of Tamim.

"More information can be found about the outfit if we can arrest Marjan."

He earlier said that they learnt about eight to nine more people who had been behind the Gulshan terror attack.

Link

Bangladesh

'2 runaway JMB leaders in West Bengal now'

2014-03-15

[Dhaka Tribune] The two leaders of the banned Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) who beat feet from a prison van while being transferred have slipped out of the country immediately through the border in northern region.

Intelligence officials of the Detective Branch of police have said they have reached the suspicion after analysing information gleaned from the tossed in the clink
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
faceless myrmidons involved with the daring escape of three JMB leaders.

The DB officials also say they have information that the JMB has a strong hold in the West Bengal, India, where the two faceless myrmidons -- Salauddin alias Salehin alias Sajeeb and Zahidul Islam alias "Boma" Mizan -- remain holed up.

Sanowar Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of the DB, yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune: "We suspect that JMB leaders Salehin and Mizan illegally crossed the border as per their plan along with their guide Faruk.

"We have scrutinised some information and clues extracted from the interrogation of JMB activists arrested soon after the incident, and also the laptops, computers and diaries seized from those JMB cadres."

Shafiqul Islam, deputy inspector general (crime) of police, said the faceless myrmidons had used the Mymensingh-Gazipur-Tangail road to reach the North Bengal region.

In reply to a query, he said the investigation into the incident of snatching of three JMB leaders was on but the information they put out could be considered as the conclusion on the escape of the myrmidons.

On February 23, a gang of JMB activists snatched top three JMB leaders Salehin, Mizan and Rakib from Trishal of Mymensingh from a prison van during transport from Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur. The JMB men also killed a police constable.

One of the runaway JMB men, Rakib, was recaptured by police and was killed in a "shootout" with police the next day.

The intelligence officials are now investigating the funding of the outfit. The officials said the JMB had not only link with West Bengal but also with several countries of the Middle East and Europe.

The West Bengal chapter of the JMB developed its base in Murshidabad, Maldah and Nadia districts during the stint of the 18-party alliance government.

JMB leader Sohel Mahfuz is leading the outfit in those districts. Intelligence officials came to learn about it in 2010 after the arrest of JMB leader Saidur Rahman.

JMB founder Abdur Rahman in a statement in 2006 mentioned the West Bengal chapter, saying West Bengal was the 65th branch of the myrmidon outfit.

Sources say that JMB leaders are involved in fake Indian currency business in West Bengal.

The intelligence officials identified two persons who had funded the myrmidons' escape from the prison van in Trishal. They are Mohammad Rahath and Azmir Sharif.

Officials at the Criminal Investigation Department have already tracked down their mobile phones and found several phone calls made to West Bengal and other parts of India.

Ashraful Islam, superintendent of police of a CID special team, said they were investigating the cases with the help of the Rapid Action Battalion

and police.

He said they had also got some important clues about the JMB's activities but denied to divulge any of it in the interest of investigation.

Meanwhile,
...back at the mall, Clarissa suddenly spied Mr. Bartlett at the checkout counter. He was buying Grecian Formula!...
police arrested two more JMB leaders -- Alamin, 25, and Tito, 28 -- from Trishal's Saudkandi area on Thursday for their alleged involvement in snatching the three JMB leaders.

Majedur Rahman, officer-in-charge of the DB in Mymensingh, said detectives from Mymensingh and Dhaka had conducted drives in different places of Bhaluka to arrest the two JMB leaders.

They were now in jug of the DB police in Dhaka, he said.

Link

Bangladesh

JMB back: Rab claims the banned Islamist outfit regrouped

2012-12-03

[Bangla Daily Star] Rapid Action Battalion

yesterday tossed in the calaboose
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
five top-level leaders of 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.
(JMB) in the capital's Mirpur on charges of allegedly plotting to foil the ongoing war crimes trial by destabilising law and order.

The leaders of the banned bad boy outfit were preparing to hold a secret meeting, Rab officials said.

One of the arrestees Shaik Rahamat Ullah alias Masum, 33, is a member of Majlish-e-Sura, the highest decision making body of the JMB, Rab sources said.

The other detainees are ehsar (full-time) members Shahinuzzaman Shahin alias Shafique, 27, Amit Hossain alias Ajmeri, 26, and Shariful Islam Shohag alias Milton, 23, and gayeri ehsar (part-time) member Saidur Rahman, 40.

A senior intelligence official of the Rab told The Daily Star that JMB men regrouped, targeting to kill BNP Chairperson

Khaleda Zia
Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide...
, Awami League leader Suranjit Sengupta and Foreign Minister Dipu Moni.

A good number of books, leaflets, CDs and pen drives containing the party's organizational directives were seized from the possessions of five arrestees.

During a press briefing at Rab headquarters, its Legal and Media Wing Director Captain M Sohail said the leaders of the banned
...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organization have been getting together under the umbrella of some religion-based political parties.

"In collaboration with these parties, the outfit members are trying to destabilise law and order, aiming to foil the war crimes trial and save war criminals," he said.

"Besides, JMB leaders and leaders of the like-minded organizations have targeted some top ranking leaders of the two major political parties," Sohail told news hounds.

The bad boy outfit has targeted to recruit Rohingyas in Myanmar to conduct bad boy activities, Capt Sohail said adding that JMB men were trying to keep contacts with the placed in durance vile
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
war criminals.

Rab officials said Sura member Masum, who hails from Narayanganj, had been working as the second man to JMB's chief Sohel Mahfuz, who is now hiding in India.

"As per the directives of Mahfuz, Masum came to Bangladesh on November 10 from India through a border point in Rajshahi," said a Rab source.

Masum was convicted to 17 years' imprisonment in an arms case in addition to six years in an explosives case. He is also accused in several other cases, including a robbery in a Brac office at Gopalganj in 2005.

After he came out of prison on a High Court bail in 2011, he had fled to India.

Ehsar members Shahinuzzaman is the chief of Khulna district JMB, Shariful of Satkhira district JMB while Amit Hossain is the finance secretary of the banned outfit.

Link

Bangladesh

Rab arrests 2 JMB men

2011-02-12

[Bangla Daily Star] Rapid Action Battalion

nabbed two members of banned cut-thoat 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, Soddy 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, Soddy 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.
(JMB) from a rented house in Alokdia of Sirajganj early yesterday.

The arrestees, Mohtasin Billah, 25, was the treasurer of JMB central unit and Al-Amin Hossain, 20, was an ehsar (fulltime) member, said Rab.

The crime busters produced the two before journalists at Rab headquarters yesterday.
"Lookee what we found!"
A team of Rab-12 raided the house in Alokdia village under Salonga Police Station and nabbed them around 1:30am, said Commander Mohammad Sohail, director of Rab's Legal and Media Wing.

During the raid the law enforcers seized some jihadi books, paper cuttings of JMB-related news,

How cute -- they were scrapbooking. Probably just as well they never tried for grown-up careers.

documents, CDs, leaflets and Bangladeshi fake currencies worth Tk 25,000 from their possession, added the Rab official.
Prolly had been better off doing armed robberies and kidnappings to raise funds. Counterfeiting is too traceable.
They also recovered some hand-written documents containing description on how to operate firearms, guard dens, work in disguise and what to say during police interrogation.

"Oboy -- can I do the interrogation, Sarge? This is going to be a fun one."
"This one is going to require extra mustache wax all around, lad. You haven't enough mustache yet. Maybe next year."

Responding to a query Sohail said they were not sure who had been leading the outfit after the arrest of its chief Maulana Saidur Rahman on May 24 last year. They, however, learnt a Sohel Mahfuz had taken over.
Welcome the new capo. The same as the old capo.
The outfit runs with the donations of members and by ~~bake sales~~ selling fake notes, claimed the Rab official adding, presently they are not strong enough to run subversive activities, though they are trying to recruit members by motivating people.

They sound pretty moth-eaten, this particular bunch of lions of Islam.

Mohtasin is a brother of jugged JMB chief's second wife Nurunnahar Himu.

Nepotism has been the ruination of more organizations...

Rab nabbed Himu along with her younger brother Muktasim Billah Rubel's wife Asma Mimi in a drive on November 1, 2009 at Mayakanon of the city's Sabujbagh.

Link

Bangladesh

JMB finds friends in outlawed parties

2010-04-25

Where else would they look?
Banned Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh has approached a new strategy to regain its strength and is trying to develop ties with different groups including the outlawed parties.

Because when you're one of the uncool kids, hanging out with those even less cool will make you cooler.

Officials of Rapid Action Battalion fighting militancy say they have already marked and broke a link between JMB and outlawed Gono Bahini.
I'll bet the shutter gun got a real workout, too ...
"The JMB contacted an outlawed group for firearms but failed as we detected and dismantled the link," Rab Director (intelligence wing) Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan told The Daily Star.

Rab sources say JMB was left in ruins following the execution of its six top brass leaders in 2007 and constant arrest of other leaders and operatives. But now the outfit might try to establish a relation with other banned outfits like Harkatul Jihad al Islami, Hizb-ut Tahrir and even the war criminals to regain strength.
Birds of a feather ...
The sources add they have information that JMB Shura member Sohel Mahfuz, who hails from Charsreekal village in Kumarkhali upazila, Kushtia, sought firearms several times from top Gono Bahini leader Ashraful Islam alias Mandar about a month ago.

Mandar was eventually spotted and killed in a "shootout" with the Rab members in Kushtia on April 7.
RAB spotted him, grabbed him, cuffed him, put him in the back of a 2-1/2 ton truck, drove to the banana grove in Kushtia, put a round of bullet behind each ear, rolled him out the back of the truck, retrieved the cuffs, carefully planted the shutter gun, took pictures, retrieved said shutter gun, lit cigars, drove back home, wiped down shutter gun, put shutter gun in velvet case, finished cigars, returned shutter gun to Sergeant Chaudhray at the RAB lock-up, transmitted pics to RAB PR department, filed expenses, and went home to bed.

Whew! It's a good thing they're fit, with such a schedule.

Interestingly, JMB came to limelight for its so-called outlaw cleansing operation in 2003 under the banner Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) in different northwestern districts.

Several ministers of the then ruling four-party alliance government and party leaders patronised JMJB in the vigilante operations that left several people dead.

Meanwhile, Rab officials say JMB is still running its invitational activities in limited scale in all district and divisional headquarters despite being almost in a fragile state. Its invitation wing members are targeting students of schools, colleges and madrasas for recruitment. The JMB members are however a bit more active in the districts of Rajshahi, Rangpur, Mymensingh, Kishoreganj and Comilla, they observe.

Some recently held JMB operatives revealed these to the crime busting force during interrogation, Rab officials say.

Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan said, "Some arrested JMB operatives admitted that their operatives hiding in district towns as rickshaw-pullers or hotel boys continue 'dawati' activities in mosques in limited scale posing as Tabligh Jamaat men."

He added JMB members first target simpleton students from madrasas, schools and colleges in guise of Tabligh men. When they think their targets have become infatuated with Islam, the militants invite them to join JMB.

He however said JMB is running this activity very secretly and in a very limited scale as the outfit is under constant surveillance of Rab. The elite force, however, could not give the exact number of active JMB leaders and operatives.

Former military wing commander of JMB "Boma" Mizan during interrogation said the outfit has around 100 Eshar (in-charge of a certain area) members, 500 Gayeri Ehsar (active members) and around 1,000 general members and 2,000 supporters across the country. Mizan was arrested on May 14 last year.

The Rab has so far arrested 558 JMB members. Of them, 13 are Majlish-e-Shura members, 112 Ehsar members and the rest are Gayeri Ehsar or general members or supporters.

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Bangladesh

JMB camp busted

2009-09-28

[Bangla Daily Star] Rapid Action Battalion has busted a training camp of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh in a remote hill area in Khagrachhari and arrested five militants in last two days.

Once upon a time to be a mujahid was to be a dashing figure of legend. Now they're getting ignominiously killed off all over the world. Predator missiles in Pakistan are only the public face of a world-wide repudiation.

The crime-busters raided the training facility at Matiranga under Khagrachhari district on Friday.

See? The rakish mujahids of yesteryear have become mere miscreants, treated no differently than a communist splinter group plotting caught plotting at three a.m. in the brickyard.

During the swoop, they arrested Abdur Rahim alias Saifullah, second-in-command of Chittagong division JMB, and seized powdered explosives, 14 grenade casings, 20 detonators, 49 books on jihad, 27 batteries and around 1 kg barbed wire.

Sergeant Bilal Siddique will need to open a new section of the evidence locker. But really, barbed wire?

In follow-up operations yesterday, Rab arrested four JMB cadres--Delwar Hossain alias Sajib, 32, and Yunus Ali alias Yunus, 20, at Shantipur of Matiranga, Delwar Hossain Dulal, 23, in Gazipur and Monir alias Ripon, 25, in Comilla.

The arrestees were paraded before the media at a press briefing at the Rab headquarters in Uttara yesterday afternoon.

Speaking to reporters there, Rahim said he, Naim and Majlish-e-Shura member Osman alias Shahid had planned an attack on BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia during her election campaign in Comilla last year.

Of them, Naim was nabbed by Rab. Though he and Osman managed to slip through the dragnet, their plan for assault on the former prime minister failed, he added.

At the briefing, Rab's Additional Director General Col Mizanur Rahman Khan said, "It took us around eight months of intelligence work to trace the camp in deep forest."

He said the camp, which has three earthen and tin-shed rooms, was not complete for training yet.

Rahim was building it on four acres of land purchased in the name of farming. Sajib, one of the arrestees, who owns a poultry farm in the area, had helped in the purchase.

Osman oversaw things in this regard on instructions from the outfit's present head Saidur Rahman.

"Naim, who was arrested at Chandina in Comilla last year, told us JMB had been shifting its training facilities to far-flung hills, and since then we have been keeping a close watch on the areas," Col Mizan said.

Around eight months back, the JMB bought the Matiranga land for around Tk 2 lakh.

"JMB activities are getting limited. We are closing in on those still at large and hope to arrest its current chief soon," he added.

Rahim, who is also known as Zahid, Habib and Saiful, said he joined JMB in 2004. He fled to Matiranga and took a job at Sajib's poultry farm after the countrywide blasts the following year.

A Rab press release said he is a key member of the JMB suicide squad. He hurled a bomb on the Rab team during the Comilla raid last year and ran away.

He stands accused in three cases filed in this connection.

JMB STRUCTURE
At the briefing, Rab officials said Moulana Saidur Rahman's son Bashar plays a key role in running the organisation.

Seven members of Shura, highest policymaking body, are Shiblu alias Shishir, Sohel Mahfuz of Kushtia, Mehedi alias Abir of Barguna, Nazmul alias Bhagne Shahid of Natore, Osman alias Shahid of Comilla, Sayeem of Dhaka and Mahmud alias Asad of Panchagarh.

Of them, Shishir is in charge of the military wing, Sohel Mahfuz dawat (invitation) department, Mehedi southern districts, Nazmul northern region, Osman Chittagong division and Sayeem takes care of the IT wing.

The duties assigned to Mahmud could not yet be known.

Mostafiz alias Siddique of Gazipur works as an adviser to the banned outfit.

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