[Dhaka Tribune] Militant outfits, especially the recently discovered IS-inspired Junud at-Tawheed Wal Khilafah, are now trying to recruit rich patrons to fund their own activities, detectives have found.Militants scoured through the internet to analyse online activities of potential new recruits -- who included residents of posh neighbourhoods as well as university students and IT experts.
The police made the findings while interrogating recently detained bully boys. The Detective Branch have so far tossed in the calaboose
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
three members of Junud at-Tawheed, all of whom were well-educated and came from affluent families.
Faiyaz Ishmam, the latest Junud member to be held, is the son of a retired defence officer; the two others -- Galib and Munasir -- lived in the capital's affluent DOHS neighbourhood.
Targeting rich university students was part of the bully boys' strategy of evading suspicion from law enforcers as well as ensuring a stable source of funding, said Md Shahjahan, additional deputy commissioner of DB.
"We have got some names from interrogating the arrestees and are now trying to locate them," he added.
According to detectives, bully boy outfits were facing a fund crunch because of beefed up monitoring in bank transactions, which had resulted in foreign sources or local sympathisers to turn away from clandestine financial contributions.
Sanowar Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of DB police, said Lions of Islam were now trying to adopt new techniques to cover the costs of running their activities.
In a desperate attempt to ensure funds, Lions of Islam were now also planning bank robberies; but those attempts were also being foiled by law enforcers.
The alternative of recruiting rich patrons was a more popular choice, as it allowed Lions of Islam to get both funds and manpower.
In this regard, Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of DB police, said a number of bully boy outfits were now trying to regroup and resume their activities by targeting educated men and women from affluent families.
IS recruiter provides leads
Detectives recently got potential leads in the search for bully boys, when detained IS recruiter Aminul Islam Begh, 50, disclosed information during questioning.Aminul, who was the local coordinator of bully boy outfit JMB, was held in the capital on May 24. He had graduated from a Malaysian university and worked as the IT chief at a subsidiary of Coca-Cola.
During his questioning under police custody, Aminul said during his work as a recruiter for Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
, he was able to recruit more than 20 people who agreed to fly abroad and join the IS cause. All of those recruits were either students or job holders, Aminul told the police.
The police have learned the identities of many of those recruits and were now working on verifying the claims. The suspected recruits included teachers at colleges and private universities, several software engineers, and a marine engineer.
Aminul said all of these recruits had consented to fly to the Middle East at their own expense and join the so-called jihad.