Author: Animesh Roul
Publication: Eastbengali.blogspot.com
Date: July 29, 2009
URL: http://eastbengali.blogspot.com/2009/07/islam-o-muslim-and-resilience-of.html
After a relatively long period of calm, Islamist
militancy in Bangladesh is showing new signs of life, even in the face of
continuous crackdowns on terrorist infrastructure and activity by counterterrorism
forces in the country.
Security officials have long established that
many of the outlawed terrorist groups have been trying to regroup and reorganize
after lying low (mostly in northwestern and southwestern Bangladesh) after
a state of emergency was declared in January 2007. In June 2008, reports came
quickly of the reemergence of terrorist groups such as Jama'at ul-Mujahedeen
Bangladesh (JMB), Allahr Dal, Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami (HuJI) and Hizb-ut
Towhid (HuT). The revival was especially strong in the southwestern districts
of Kushtia, Meherpur, Jhenidah, Magura, Chuadanga, Jessore, and Satkhira.
Intelligence sources revealed that all these groups have maintained close
operational ties and carried out terrorist operations on Bangladeshi soil.
One estimate suggested there were about 12,000 cadres actively operating in
the country, mostly madrassa (Islamic seminary) teachers, students and clerics
of mosques (Daily Star [Dhaka], June 12, 2008). In April of this year, Bangladesh
intelligence agencies declared that the Islamist terrorist groups are reorganizing
with the aim of making a deadly comeback (Daily Star, April 29).
A mid-June report based on the confessional
statement of a JMB terrorist shed some light on this resilient outfit. According
to the report, JMB operatives are still using different border routes in Chapai
Nawabganj and Jessore to smuggle in bomb-making materials and small arms from
neighboring India despite being weakened by the government crackdown (Daily
Star, June 22). The militant also confessed that members of the JMB central
committee are trying to keep the organization afloat in Dhaka and other divisional
capitals.
The Emergence of Islam-o-Muslim
In the midst of this evolving terrorist scenario
in Bangladesh, a new jihadi outfit has emerged under the name of Islam-o-Muslim
(IoM). The existence of IoM, a hitherto unknown group that security forces
believe is a dissident breakaway faction of JMB, came to light when the Detective
Branch (DB) of the Bangladesh police apprehended JMB terrorist Mustafizur
Rahman (a.k.a Montu) in Dhaka's Fakirerpol district on June 28, followed by
the June 30 arrest of another JMB terrorist from the Gazipur district, Abdur
Rahim (a.k.a Shahadat Hossain), who claimed to be the chief of IoM. Security
forces also apprehended a pair of IoM area commanders identified as Sajedur
Rahman (a.k.a Hanif) and Jalal Uddin (BDNews24.com, July 3; New Nation [Dhaka],
July 3). On July 6, a joint team of police and paramilitary personnel from
the Bangladesh Rifles arrested senior IoM operative Selim (a.k.a Saifullah),
the IoM second-in-command and military affairs commander in Chapai Nawabganj
(BDNews24.com, July 8; Daily Star, July 8).
After this string of arrests, the elite counterterrorist
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) claimed they had foiled IoM's attempt to expand
its activities by arresting many of its top leaders in a stepped-up crackdown
on the terrorist infrastructure in Bangladesh. After extensive investigation,
Bangladesh police have now confirmed that at least four JMB suspects arrested
on earlier occasions in various parts of Chapai Nawabganj were actually IoM
members. These suspects were identified as Abdul Mumin, Abdur Raqib, Rabiul
Islam and Abdul Munib.
The interrogations of Abdur Rahim and other
suspects revealed that IoM was formed in April 2009 to dominate the northwestern
part of Bangladesh. With around 10 to 15 Ehsar (full-time) members and many
Gayeri Ehsar (part-time) activists, IoM reportedly tried to expand in Rajshai
division (bordering India's West Bengal State) to establish a free zone consisting
of the Gomastapur, Shibganj and Bholahat portions of the Chapai Nawabganj
frontier district, Bagmara of the Rajshahi district and Raninagar and Atrai
of the Naogaon district.
The arrest of Abdur Rahim and Sajedur Rahman,
both former members of the JMB's Majlis-e-Shura (Council of Advisors), brought
this new outfit to the fore of the ever-expanding Islamist landscape in Bangladesh.
Abdur Rahim, an alumnus of Islami Chhatra Shibir (the student wing of Jamaat-i-Islami
Bangladesh), joined JMB in 2002. He was appointed chief of the Bagmara sub-district
initially and was actively involved in JMB's violent activities targeting
left-wing Sarbahara activists in Rajshahi district. However Rahim, a close
associate of Siddiqul Islam (a.k.a Bangla Bhai, leader of the radical Jagrata
Muslim Janata Bangladesh - JMJB), fled to India after the countrywide crackdowns
on JMB's top leadership following the serial bomb blasts in August 2005 (Daily
Star, July 7). Rahim reportedly worked for JMB's cause in India by raising
funds and new recruits in and around the Murshidabad, Nadia and Malda districts
of India's West Bengal state. After his return to Bangladesh early this year,
Rahim formed IoM due to the internal feud growing within the ranks of the
JMB, primarily over financial and ideological matters.
Unlike JMB, which used various terror tactics
in the country ranging from suicide attacks to planting bombs and explosives,
the IoM aims to wage jihad with small arms, focusing on weapons and ammunition
manufacturing in their hideouts. Police seized shotguns, bullet-making materials,
and books on jihad from all the IoM cadres they have arrested so far. Both
Abdur Rahim and Selim vehemently opposed many of the JMB's activities, especially
bomb blasts. Instead they have chosen assassination-style killings with small
arms as their main tactic (Daily Star, July 19).
IoM has conducted several meetings of their
top leaders at Raghunathpur and Ranihati villages in Shibganj sub-district.
Abdur Rahim was in charge of recruiting new IoM members from active as well
as inactive members of JMB in Chapai Nawabganj, Rajshahi and Naogaon districts.
Significantly, the JMB is reported to have planned a meeting in the village
of Kansat in April. Three years ago, hundreds of JMB cadres took part in the
Kansat Movement, a peasant revolt sparked by alleged irregularities in the
Rural Electricity Board and irregular power supplies. [1] JMB members decided
to take part in the movement primarily because of its anti-Bangladesh Nationalist
Party (BNP) agenda, which gave them the opportunity to target government infrastructure
and property (Daily Star, June 22).
The Jama'at ul-Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB)
When JMB's top leadership was put on trial
in March 2007, a new six-member central committee took shape with Maulana
Sayedur Rahman Jaffar as the acting chief of the group. The other five members
were identified by intelligence agencies as Assaduallah Arif, Tasleem, Faruq,
Syed and Mahfuz (Jaijaidin [Dhaka], March 3, 2007; see also Terrorism Focus,
March 27, 2007). Since that time Maulana Sayedur Rahman is believed to be
heading the JMB in Bangladesh while operating from his home in the Mirpur
locality of Dhaka.
Most of the second-rung JMB leaders went into
hiding after the Bangladesh government's proclamation of emergency and withdrew
further following the executions of senior JMB leadership in March 2007. A
similar case is that of Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI), whose cadres also went
into hibernation soon after the countrywide crackdown on the HuJI leadership.
The JMB along with other terrorist groups
wants to establish a shari'a-based Islamic state in Bangladesh. The outfit
perpetrated a series of deadly bombings in market places and court premises
in 2005. The counterterrorist RAB claims to have arrested nearly 44 JMB operatives
during the last six months (Daily Star, July 19).
Transnational Terror Ties
Most of the Bangladesh-based terrorist outfits
have well-nourished transnational linkages that reach as far as Afghanistan,
Pakistan, India and Myanmar. Bangladesh police recently arrested a Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT) operative, Mufti Obaidullah (a.k.a Abu Zafa), who has been working under
LeT leader Amir Reza and LeT operative Khurram Khoiyam in Pakistan and Daowd
Ibrahim in Dubai.
Obaidullah, originally from India's West Bengal,
reportedly told his interrogators that his task was to organize jihad in Bangladesh
in cooperation with HuJi and JMB operatives. Obaidullah has close ties with
Mufti Abdur Rauf of the HuJI and JMB's Hasanuzzaman Hasan, who was arrested
by police on July 17 (Independent, July 20; New Nation [Dhaka], July 20).
Within the last couple of months, counterterrorist
forces have managed to arrest JMB's IT chief Emranul Haque Rajib and top explosives
expert Jahedul Islam Sumon (a.k.a Bomb Mizan), both from the Dhaka area. The
explosives expert reportedly revealed during interrogation that JMB has close
operational ties with the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), a militant
movement drawn from Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine state.
Islam Sumon told his interrogators that the RSO had been giving terrorist
training to various Islamic militants in Bangladesh since the 1980s and that
he and other JMB operatives had been trained by RSO weapons experts at a camp
near the Myanmar border. JMB reciprocated by teaching the Rohingyas how to
make and detonate improvised explosive devices (IEDs) (Bangladesh2Day.com,
May 19). Islam Sumon also revealed that many JMB members had fled to Pakistan
either to undertake military training there or to fight for one of the militant
groups operating in Pakistan (Daily Star June 23).
Conclusion
The Home Ministry of Bangladesh has recently
made public a list of 12 terrorist organizations that are currently active
in the country. [2] Earlier, they claimed that 33 terror outfits were active
in the country. With the recent developments in view, the Bangladesh government
is now planning to set up a highly-trained National Police Bureau of Counter
Terrorism to combat militancy and terrorism. IoM appears to present a serious
threat as the JMB dissidents look to revive their insurgency with new members
and new tactics. Looking at the emergence of IoM and the surge of other terror
groups, it would not be farfetched to conclude that this South Asian country
could face the fate of Pakistan or Afghanistan if it fails to tackle the reemergence
of Islamist terrorism.
Notes
1. See the article by A.H. Jaffor Ullah, "Kansat
Uprising: The first peasant revolution in Bangladesh in a long time,"
Mukto-Mona.com, April 15, 2006.
2. Bangladesh Home Ministry compiled a report
that includes 12 militant groups. They are; Jama'atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh
(JMB), Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI), Hizbut Towhid, Ulama Anjuman al Bainat,
Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Islami Democratic Party, Islami Samaj, Touhid Trust, Jagrata
Muslim Janata Bangladesh, Shahadat-e al-Hikma Party Bangladesh, Tamira Ar-Din
Bangladesh (Hizb-e Abu Omar) and Allahr Dal (Times of India, March 17).
