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| Bangladesh |
| Cops hunt for 40 Huji operatives |
| 2010-01-20 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] Around 40 operatives of outlawed Harkatul Jihad Al Islami (Huji) including convicted and charge-sheeted accused of different bomb attack cases are still on the run, posing a threat to the country. Some of the absconding militants are holding secret meetings and were even training up members at a secluded place in Mohammadpur in the capital a few months ago. However, the militants cancelled the training and abandoned the area after different intelligence and law-enforcement agencies started a hunt for them months after the present government assumed power, intelligence and Huji sources say. The absconding Huji leaders include some of the top brasses like Mufti Shafiqur Rahman, Sheikh Farid, Maulana Abu Bakar, Abdul Hannan Sabbir, Maulana Liton, Abdul Hye, Abu Jehad, Abu Musa, Abdullah, Sagir Bin Emdad, Maulana Monir, Maulana Masum and Golam Mostafa. Most of them have training on sophisticated weapons and grenades. Sources in the law-enforcement agencies believe the militants responsible for deadly bomb and grenade attacks and death of over 90 people since 1999 are still a threat. However, top officials from Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and Detective Branch (DB) say since the absconding militants are on the run, possibility of any attack by them is very slim. "There is little chance of any attack by Huji men since we are always after them," Rab Director General Hassan Mahmood Khandkar told The Daily Star recently. DB Deputy Commissioner Monirul Islam also expressed similar view on the issue. The Rab DG said they have lists of the members of not only Huji but also other militant outfits including banned Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and are always after them. Some Afghan war veterans launched the Bangladesh chapter of Huji on April 30, 1992 with an aim to establish Islamic rule in the country. Since then it spread its tentacles across the country until 1996 with the very knowledge of the then government. After the political changeover in 2001 Huji again started its activities which were an open secret to the BNP-Jamaat-led alliance government. Probes into the August 21 attempt on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's [then main opposition leader] life have already revealed involvement of former deputy minister of BNP government Abdus Salam Pintu and a number of Huji leaders. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is now carrying out further investigation into the cases and has already arrested BNP leader and former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and Huji founder Sheikh Abdus Salam. The sources say an influential intelligence agency helped Maulana Tajuddin, who supplied grenades for the August 21 attacks, flee the country. The sources add the agency in October 2004 also helped Hafez Jahangir Badar flee to Saudi Arabia where he became a major source of Huji funding later. Some Huji kingpins including the outfit's founders Sheikh Abdus Salam and Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid even used to meet a section of officials of that intelligence agency during the BNP-Jamaat rule and even during the immediate past caretaker rule, say the sources. Salam, arrested in November last year in connection with the August 21 carnage, claimed he had maintained connection with the agency and tried to form Islamic Democratic Party (IDP) with its consent during the caretaker regime. Some 475 Afghan war veterans joined the IDP, sources say. The attacks by Huji include the August 21 carnage in 2004, Ramna Batamul blast in 2001, Udichi blast in 1999, Narayanganj Awami League office blast in 2001, CPB rally blast at Paltan Maidan in 2001, and attempt on the then British high commissioner in 2004. The sources say intelligence agencies launched raids on Huji hideouts to trap militant leaders including Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid in vain in recent months. Two of the Huji absconders -- Anisul Mursalin and Muhibul Mottakin -- are now in Tihar Jail in India after they were arrested by the Indian security forces in 2006. |
| Posted by:Fred |