The operatives of the banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad Bangladesh (Huji) are now joining another banned militant group Ansar al Islam, responsible for killing bloggers, writers and free thinkers, Rab said today.

The Huji operatives are now changing their group as the top leaders of the outfit are either hanged or behind bars after August 21 grenade attack in 2004 and the grenade attack on British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury on May 21, 2004, Mozammel Haque, commanding officer of Rab-4 said at a press conference at Rab media centre.

The Rab official said as per the information gleaned from four Ansar al Islam men, who were arrested in Dhaka’s Gabtoli and nearby Amin Bazar area on Sunday night.

The arrestees are-- Mufti Saiful Islam, 34, Salim Mia, 30, Zunayed, 37, and Ahmed Sohayel, 21.

Of them, Saiful and Zunayed were once affiliated with Huji, but now hold an important post in the Ansar al Islam, Mozammel said.  

“They [the arrestees] had a plan to kill whom they believe as an obstacle in their way,” the Rab official said.

The Rab CO said the outfit usually uses machetes to carry out target killing. Rab is yet to be sure whether the arrestees are involved in such killings.

Rab claimed they seized two machetes from their possession.

Rab officials said Saiful, a teacher of a night madrasa, is a top leader of Ansar al Islam. He used to communicate with others through encrypted messaging apps. He was a trainer too.

An inhabitant of Hazaribagh Salim Mia stepped into militancy after he got acquainted with Saiful while he was studying at the night Madrasa in 2013. He used to donate monthly to maintain the outfit.

Zunayed was a founding director of a madrasa at Savar. He used to communicate with Saiful regularly. The outfit used to hold meeting occasionally in his madrasa.

Sohayel joined Ansar al Islam three years ago after he got acquainted with a top leader of Ansar al Islam online.