'Huji plans Qaeda merger'

Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Bangladesh (Huji-B) leaders were preparing to build their organisational capability to join al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). They wanted to go on a bombing spree after Eid to let everyone know that they exist.

Rapid Action Battalion made the claim after arresting 12 alleged Huji leaders and activists.

Arrestee Maulana Mainul Islam Mahim's job was to coordinate with AQIS and organise the Huji leaders and activists to join al-Qaeda. Arrestee Mufti Zafar Amin Salman was acting as an adviser for the whole operation, Rab officials said.

Rab also said the arrestees were trying to label themselves as “Dawate Tabliq” and “313 Badrer Sainik”. Their plan was to join AQIS after the two organisations had spread across Bangladesh.

“They [arrested militants] had a plan to carry out bomb attacks across the country after Eid to send a message to the inactive members of militant outfits about their existence,” said Mufti Mahmud Khan, Rab's Legal and Media wing director, at a press briefing at its headquarters in the capital yesterday.

He said their plan was to get as much media coverage as possible through the bomb attacks and recruit more operatives.

Rab officials said the militants had so far recruited 50 operatives and of them, 20 were supposed to have training at a madrasa in Bogra.

The Rab's claim about the arrestees' attempt to set up a link with AQIS could not be verified. Journalists had not been allowed to ask the arrestees questions when they were paraded before the media yesterday.

After becoming stronger by recruiting more operatives, they had a plan to work under AQIS, Rab claimed.

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in last September had announced an Indian subcontinent branch of al-Qaeda for Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Myanmar.

Earlier, in a video posted on Jihadist Forum on May 2, AQIS claimed the responsibility for the murder of writer-blogger Avijit Roy.

In the video, AQIS leader Asim Umar said his organisation carried out the attack on Avijit and “other blasphemers" in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Rab officials, however, said they so far did not find any link between the arrestees and the murders and the AQIS claim. They said they would interrogate them further in remand about the murders and the claim.

Mufti Mahmud Khan told reporters that Maulana Mayeen Uddin alias Abul Jandal, a death-row in mate and a top Huji leader, had been communicating with the arrestees from jail.

The arrestees had been planning a Trishal-style ambush on a prison van to snatch away Mayeen from custody, he said.

In February last year, militants attacked a prison van in Trishal of Mymensingh and liberated three condemned JMB leaders from police custody. A policeman was killed in the attack. Two of the escapees are still at large while the other one was killed in a shootout.

Huji had wanted to free Mayeen by attacking and cutting the grills of Kashimpur Jail, Rab claimed, adding that realising it was very risky, they planned for an ambush.

On information that Huji men were gathering in the capital from across the country, several teams of Rab-4 detained them at Sadarghat, Airport Railway Station and Mirpur during the last two days.

The other arrestees were: Mohammad Saidul Islam alias Sayeed Tamim, Mosharraf Hossain, Abdur Rahman Bapary, Al Amin Ibrahim, Mozahidul Islam Nakib, Ashraful Islam alias Abul Hashem, Robiul Islam, Habib Ullah, Shohidul Islam, and Altaf Hossain.  

Rab during its drive in a Mirpur house also seized bomb-making materials and manuals, and books on jihad.

Mufti Mahmud Khan further said the militants, including the arrestees, had also planned to rob arms from law enforcers' arsenals and use them to create anarchy.

Rab claimed that a group of people in Saudi Arabia and Dubai had been providing financial support for their militant activities.

The elite force also claimed that the militants had sorted their operatives in three categories. The operatives they recruited fresh through personal contact or through social media were called the Din Kayemer Sathi (the supporters of the struggle for Islamic Sharia).

From the Din Kayemer Sathi, a selected bunch, who pledges to work for spreading their ideology and recruit people, would be promoted to Bayate fi Sabilillah stage.

The other sort is the Shahidi Kafela ; the people endowed with "high religious spirit" and who would be “ready to sacrifice their lives for the struggle”.