Terrorist Network in Bangladesh

25 September, 2009 05:25:00 editor

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Recent arrests have brought into sharp focus the widespread terrorist network in Bangladesh and highlighted how they are able to extend their reach with overseas ties and local patronage, says the analyst

It is generally believed that the radical Islamic groups in Bangladesh are locally organized and not like the Arabs and Pakistanis in terms of Islamic fervor or Jihadi spirit as the Bangladeshi groups are far less supported, organized, and ideologically committed.

But the recent arrests of Sheikh Obaidullah alias Abu Zafar and Maulana Mohammad Mansur Ali, who are active workers of Pakistan based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and are also among the ‘most wanted’ by India, shows such assumptions may not be true any longer. Their ‘disclosures’ put the spotlight on international terrorist groups in Bangladesh.

LeT has spread its roots with the help of several politicians and outfits like Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami Bangladesh (HUJI-B) and Jamiatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

HUJI-B leaders (arrested in connection with the attack on Awami League rally on Aug 21, 2004) and JMB top leaders including Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai (before their execution in 2007) had confessed to the police of their links with LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) as well as the international terrorist network. Their patrons, according to them, were former BNP ministers Altaf Hossen Chowdhury and Ruhul Quddus Talukder as also well as JEI Amir Matiur Rahman Nizami. Strangely these ‘disclosures’ are yet to be refuted.

Obaidullah and Mansur of the LeT who had landed in the police net, are high profile militants; they have been hiding in Bangladesh since 1995 with the backing of a powerful lobby within the administration. Both had taught in various madrassas in Bangladesh for more than 15 years. The two also took part actively in the wars in Afghanistan from 1988 to 1993 and had been trained in handling a wide range of light and heavy weapons like machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, AK-47 assault rifles, BM-50 canons, rocket launchers, and mortars.

These two LeT worthies were active in militancy in India, in collaboration with Bangladesh- Pakistan-Afghanistan militants and with the Islamist militants of Kashmir. Their HUJI-B associates in India were picked from places like Varanasi and Hyderabad after the attack on Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore (2006) and on the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad (2007). LeT had tasked them to target premier Indian institutions of science and technology, they told the police during interrogation.

Obaidullah and Mansur are also linked to Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF), the terrorist outfit responsible for the attack on American Centre in Kolkata on Jan 22, 2002.

They told interrogators that ARCF and LeT had supplied grenades to LeT’s Bangladesh chapter leader Maulana Tajuddin for carrying out attacks on Awami League rally on Aug 21, 2004. (Twenty-three people, including several Awami League leaders and Ivy Rahman, wife of the present President Zillur Rahman were killed and over 300 injured in the attack. Sheikh Hasina was also hurt. She still suffers from eye problem and hearing impairment inflicted by the blast)

LeT’s Bangladesh chapter leader Maulana Tajuddin, who is absconding, is the brother of Abdus Salam Pintu, a Minister in BNP-JEI government (2001-06), now under detention for his links with militants. The main attacker, HUJI-B commander Mufti Hannan, has revealed that after carrying out attack on Hasina that day, BNP Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury gave him protective sanctuary. The BNP-JEI ordered investigation of the case officially but allowed the probe to remain in cold storage till the end of its term.

Asif Reza Commando Force, ARCF, was controlled by Aftab Ansari who also goes by the names, Aftab Ahmed and Farhan Malik. He used to operate from Dubai; the UAE authorities arrested him on Jan 23, 2002 and deported him to India on Feb 9, 2002.

Ansari was arrested while attempting to leave for Pakistan on a Pakistani passport. He ran an extortion and abduction network in India with the active support of Pakistan based terrorists and ISI help.

Ansari was the financier of the large consignment of arms and ammunition, including 14 kilograms of RDX, which was seized in Gujarat’s Patan district in Nov 2001, after the arrest of Asif Reza Khan and a Pakistani accomplice Arshad Khan in New Delhi on Oct 29, 2001.

Asif Reza Khan – after whom the ARCF is named – was killed at Rajkot in on Dec 7, 2001, when he attempted to escape from police custody. His arrest had led to disclosures of ARCF’s linkages with LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed. His primary link with these outfits was through Omar Sheikh, whom he met at the Tihar jail in Delhi during 1999, while undergoing a sentence under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA).

Omar Sheikh was one of the terrorists, who were released – along with Maulana Masood Azhar, founder of the JeM – in the hostage swap after the hijack of Indian Airlines aircraft IC-814 to Kandahar in Dec 1999. Sheikh was responsible for the murder of the American journalist Daniel Pearl. Asif Reza is reported to have been delegated by Omar Sheikh to execute a series of terrorist strikes in New Delhi when he was arrested in Oct 2001.

Aftab Ansari played a key role in the July 25, 2001 abduction of Kolkata-based businessman Partha Pratim Roy Barman, who was released five days later reportedly after a ransom of Rs 3.75 crore was paid in Dubai through the non-official banking channel (known as hawala network).

Out of this amount, Omar Sheikh reportedly transferred by wire $100,000 to Mohammed Atta, who had led the 9/11 attack on New York’s twin towers.

The credentials of LeT activists Obaidullah and Mansur Ali in militancy are much more than have been revealed so far. Though they said they had slipped into Bangladesh only to hide, law enforcement agencies believe that they have been working to expand their network of organizations in Bangladesh because they were in regular contact with many leaders of HUJI-B and JMB amongst other groups. The interrogation revealed that with directives from Ameer Reza, a Pak-based kingpin of LeT, they were making preparations for a jihad by organizing Bangladeshi Mujahids.

According to their confessions, some more high profile Islamic militants are hiding in Bangladesh and they were linked to Abdur Rauf alias Daud Merchant, a close aide to International mafia don Dawood Ibrahim. Their interrogations have revealed that LeT has been getting help and support from the D Company network and ISI sleuths in Bangladesh. In fact their arrests came in the wake of disclosures made by Daud Merchant and Zahid Sheikh, both were close associates of Dawood Ibrahim. Merchant is wanted in India in connection with the killing of a Music baron. Dhaka police arrested him recently.

One interesting nugget that throws light on ‘patronage circuit’ is that Khaleda Zia’s son Tareq Rahman had held several meetings with the mafia don Dawood in Dubai in 2004. Tareq was Senior Joint Secretary General of BNP. Some close associates including the then State Home Minister Lutfozzaman Babar attended the tête-à-tête. Neither the purpose nor the outcome is known but the meeting was undoubtedly significant as the don runs an international network of mercenaries.

Bangladesh agencies have reportedly not found ‘any specific’ allegations of acts of sabotage against Obaidullah and Mansur Ali. The surmise is that these two militants covered their tracks by frequently changing madrasas and hoping from one district to another while organizing the militants for jihad. They entered the country with the help of local allies. Patrons helped them to get National Identity card of Bangladesh.

Both the LeT militants are fluent enough in Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and the Persian and so therefore were able to conduct with ease Jihadi activities with the help of HUJI-B, JMB and other Islamist groups under ISI directions of ISI and with the financial backing of D Company. The investigators have since zeroed in on the names of the patrons particularly political leaders who were giving shelter to them.

The linkages between HUJI-B and Al Qaeda was established when HUJI-B leader Fazlul Rahman signed the Fatwa in 1998 declaring ‘Holy War’ on the US. Other signatories of the Fatwas included Osama bin Laden (al Qaeda), Aiyman al Zawahiri (Jihad Group of Egypt), Rifat Ahmad Taha alias Abu Yasir (Egyptian Islamic Group) and Sheikh Mir Hammah (Secretary of Jamiatul Ulema-e-Pakistan).

The US State Department through an executive order on Mar 5, 2008 designated HUJI-B as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

Hambali, the chief of Indonesia based pro-Al Qaeda group Jemmah Islamyah had planned to shift base to Bangladesh. Luck ran out for him after the Bali night club bombing and the FBI arrested him in 2002

Witnessing the presence of high profile international militants in Bangladesh, it can be said that Bangladesh is emerging as a haven for South Asian terror operatives, and that their stay is being facilitated by a section of local leaders and political groups having vested interests.

This is a cause for concern to Sheikh Hasina government which came to power on the plank of peace and progress. The Awami League regime is determined to root out extremists. Given the reach and depth of the militant outfits, combating terror should become an enterprise of the people and the government.

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