Cops capture two IS men

Detectives yesterday claimed to have arrested two members of Islamic State (Isis) from the capital's Uttara and Mohammadpur.

The two had been recruiting operatives for the militant outfit, police said.

Arrested Aminul Islam Beg, 38, a graduate in Computer Science and Engineering from a Malaysian University, is the head of the IT department of a multinational company. His accomplice Sakib bin Kamal, 30, is a former teacher of an English medium school in Dhaka.

Previously, Aminul was a regional co-coordinator of the banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and he accepted the Isis ideologies after going through its publications online, said Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of detective branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

He had been trying to send operatives to Iraq and Syria from Bangladesh, he added.

"Aminul has so far selected 20 people from among the JMB operatives across the country, many of whom are ready to leave the country to join IS in Iraq and Syria," Monirul told a press briefing at the DMP media centre.

Sakib was one of the 20 operatives, said the DB official, adding that Aminul himself was supposed to join the militant group in Syria after sending a good number of operatives there.

The two were paraded before the media.

Asked, if he was an Isis member, Aminul kept mum. About his profession, he said he was an engineer.

Detectives arrested Aminul from Uttara and Sakib from Mohammadpur on Sunday night along with a laptop, three mobile phones and several books and publications that support fanaticism.

Over the last one year, police arrested at least 14 suspected IS operatives in Bangladesh.

During primary investigation, Aminul and Sakib denied having any link with them, but detectives are investigating it.

Police are also probing if the two had any link with those who recently threatened to kill 10 distinguished personalities through identical letters.    

On funds of the militants, Monirul said money was not a problem for most of the 20 selected operatives as they were from affluent families and some of them were having jobs.

During quizzing, the arrestees claimed they did not establish contacts with Isis leaders in Iraq and Syria. But detectives said they found technological evidence of their communications with militant organisations in different countries.

Yesterday, the two were produced before a Dhaka court that granted three days' remand for each.