| Follow-up on the Green Crescent story a little while back. Sounds like the RAB is rolling up the network and pinched Faisal a few days back. That they're announcing it now means the RAB has squeezed him dry. Expect some quiet crossfires in the near future. |
The Rab claims the 42-year-old chemistry graduate was arrested along with his close associate Md Saifuddin Badal in the early hours yesterday in Bhogra on Pubail bypass road in Gazipur.
Additional Director General of Rab Col Rezanur Rahman Khan in a press briefing yesterday afternoon said no charges have been brought against Faisal and Badal. "Md Russell Howladar, who was arrested at Green Crescent Madrasa on March 24, gave the names of Faisal as the owner of the madrasa and Badal as Faisal's close associate," Col Rezanur said.
| "It was Faisal! He kidnapped the Lindbergh baby! Honest! Now put those down!" |
The names of Faisal and Badal also popped up in a simultaneous police investigation in Bhola. But the cases filed by the police against the madrasa did not include Faisal as an accused or perpetrator.
Rab-8 and the intelligence wing of Rab jointly conducted an operation and arrested the two at 4:00am yesterday. However, the media on March 26 reported that Faisal was arrested in Dhaka the previous day.
Twice cleared as a terror suspect in 1996 and 2002 in British courts but given 18 months imprisonment for possessing illegal firearm in the UK, Faisal's arrest has drawn focus of the British media.
| And that's as good as a death sentence in Bang-land ... |
Faisal's father in Manchester in the UK and father-in-law in Dhaka repeatedly claimed to The Daily Star that he has been arrested, but the law-enforcement agencies trashed their claim.
Col Rezanur yesterday denied that claim once again. "He will be sent to Borhanuddin police in Bhola for the next course of action," he said. "If the legal process allows we'll take them for questioning," he added.
| Otherwise they'll just him in some upazaila at 4 am ... |
On how the arms and ammunition landed in Faisal's well-protected madrasa, Rezanur said, "This is still under investigation."
A citizen of Britain based in Manchester, Bangladesh-born Faisal registered an NGO -- Green Crescent -- in Doulatkhan in Bhola in 1999. He had a registered charity in the UK under the same name. He expanded the NGO to Borhanuddin without taking permission from the Department of Social Service. The NGO has a nine-member committee, in which he is the vice-president.
According to his family, Faisal travels to Bangladesh at least once a year. This time he came to Bangladesh in March and just left Bhola to go to Chittagong when Rab unearthed his ammo den. Rab sources say the ammo den surely indicates the madrasa has links with militants. But they are not sure if it was Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Harkatul Jihad Al Islami or some other group.