At least 14 foreign militant groups besides JeM are said to be active in Bangladesh since 1991.
“The detained JeM leader has been carrying out his activity on the instruction of Saber Ahmmed, ex-principal of the madrasa, who has been living in Pakistan for the last few years,” the police official said, adding, “Financial support for his activities came from Pakistan and Saber is technically the boss of Yunus”.
Yunus had come to Dhaka to meet a contact man at the time of his arrest but the police have given no details about the identity of the ‘contact’, according to the Daily Star.
According to the police investigations, Yunus’s job is to recruit Rohingyas and locals of Cox’s Bazar for his group and have them ‘carry out JeM’s activities in Bangladesh’.
Moulana Mohammad Yunus (48) hails from Highschoolpara of Ramu upazila in Cox’s Bazar. He was a teacher at Moulavir Kata Al-Givari Adarsha Dakhil Madrasa in Cox’s Bazar.
The DB official said Yunus’s contact, Saber, was previously involved in Jamaat-e-Islami. He paid a visit to Bangladesh in July last.
On February 28, 2010, a Pakistani national and four of his Bangladeshi aides were arrested in Dhaka in connection with the swoop on JeM. One of these JeM operatives had told law enforcers then that he was involved in the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane.
After the latest arrest, no more JeM operatives are left in the country, Lt Col Zia ul Ahsan, director of the intelligence wing of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), told The Daily Star.
“As far as we know, there are no JeM operatives left in the country”, he said.
JeM has been blamed for the attack on Indian parliament in New Delhi in December, 2001, along with another militant group. JeM is also suspected to have a role in the abduction and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi.
The JeM leader’s arrest comes in the wake of 35 Hizb-ut Tahrir suspects landing in the police net. HuT is a banned outfit. Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) on Aug 12 arrested them from a restaurant in Dhaka’s Panthapath where they were holding a “secret meeting”.
Rab officials claimed that the meeting was convened to plan “subversive activities” or “massive showdown” after the Eid vacation. The meeting was held as Iftar-Mehfil.
All the arrested were presented before the media on Aug 13 but newsmen were not permitted to talk with them. Four of the arrested HuT members are teachers working in school, college or university. Eight are studying MBBS and BDS in different medical and dental colleges. 12 are seeking admission to the university admission. One youth is a stock market trader while nine are in private jobs. One is an unemployed.
Commander M Sohail, director of Rab’s Legal and Media wing, told the media that they had recovered some books and leaflets of the banned organisation from the meeting place. .
Based on the information the arrestees had given, Rab raided 21 houses and seized a large number of banned books, magazines, leaflets, camera containing photographs of their activities, a laptop, several pen drives, cell phones and SIM cards.
HuT has been finding the going tough after it came under intense scrutiny and many of its activists have been rounded up. It is presently engaged in regrouping and motivating people to join HuT ranks. According to Commander Sohail, the Iftar-Mehfil gathering in Panthapath was a part of the regrouping effort. He said the Mehfil was arranged especially to motivate youth, who have come to Dhaka for higher studies.
Because of the continuous drive, banned outfits, like Hizb-ut-Tahrir and Harkat ul Zihad, are closing ranks with Islamist political parties in order to escape police and to carry out their activities unhindered. Commander Sohail puts the number of such activists at more than one lakh. According to him, most of the arrested cadres manage to get out on bail and rejoin their outfits. This calls for tough prosecution.
