Bangladesh Cracks Down on Terror

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Unwilling host to jihadis gets serious

The breakup of a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist cell in Dhaka two weeks ago has reinforced is the latest manifestation of the growing counter-terror cooperation between India and Bangladesh and confirms what was earlier only alleged – that Pakistan-based terror groups have been using Bangladeshi territory to launch terror operations against India.

After years of suspicion between the two nations, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed has been steadily reducing tensions. She visited New Delhi on a maiden three-day visit late December in what India called a "historic opportunity" to build "a new and forward-looking relationship" amid hoped that security concerns would be addressed.

Bangladesh also recently pushed the United Liberation Front of Assam top brass, including its chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, across the Indian border from where they had sheltered for more than a decade. Last year, Bangladesh also broke up a Lashkar-e-Taiba cell which included members from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The close counterterror cooperation between Indian and Bangladesh has also led to other arrests. On Jan. 18, Hyderabad police in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh arrested an alleged terror operative belonging to Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami and the outfit’s chief of operations in south India.

The arrested terrorist, Shaikh Abdul Khawja alias Amjad, was said to be planning attacks in south India during Republic Day celebrations. According to Hyderabad Police, Khwaja was working “under the guidance of the Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan to destabilize the Indian economy and devastate internal security of the nation.” Police also said they had established Khawaja’s links with Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Jaish-e-Mohammed, founded by Maulana Masood Azhar, was launched in 2000 in Karachi after he and two other top militants were released by India as part of a deal to secure the release of Indian hostages in Kandahar. The terror group was subsequently responsible for the December 13, 2001 attack on Parliament House in New Delhi which killed six policemen, five Jaish members and a bystander. After the parliament attack, Pakistan government banned the organization and the US State Department listed it as a terrorist outfit.

The most recent arrest of the five members of the cell was by Bangladesh’s Rapid Action battalion on Feb. 28 in a busy area in Dhaka. One of those arrested was a Pakistani national while four others were locals. According to officials the Pakistani, Rezwan Ahmed, had been coordinating operations in Bangladesh and recruiting local Bangladeshis for training in Pakistan to launch operations against India and had been freely moving between India and Bangladesh. The rapid action force also recovered the passport of another Pakistani who is suspected of having have fled to India.

Two of the locals are sons of Mohiuddin Mian, the president of the Hajiganj union Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in Chandpur, who had earlier been involved in the activities of Jamaat-e-Islami. The Rapid Action Battalion claims that Mohiuddin and Salahuddin sheltered the militants in both Dhaka and their village home in Hajiganj in Chandpur.

After the arrest of the five, Mohiuddin and his brother Salahuddin disappeared. Both were in Pakistan till 2005, Salahuddin working at a garment factory in Karachi for around five years, Mohiuddin visiting Pakistan and India on business. The Bangladesh police say they evidence suggests Rezwan was trying to conduct operations in Bangladesh as well as India.

The interrogation of Nannu Mian, alias Belal Mandol alias Billal, a member of the Jaish cell, turned up evidence that he had helped 12-13 militants to enter India from Bangladesh. The arrest of these operatives also indicates that the extremists groups either of Pakistani or Bangladesh origin are trying to regroup despite suffering losses due to the determined joint offensive by India and Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh the jihadi network has been growing over the years. In recent times, the two prominent local groups have been Harkat ul-Jihad-e-Islami Bangladesh and the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh. Though there has been a crackdown on JMB and its top leaders were hanged during the regime of the caretaker government headed by Fakharuddin Ahmed, the outfit’s links to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish remain quite strong.

Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh was founded in 1998 by Saudi Arabia-educated Sheikh Abdur Rahman, who had met the top leadership of the Lashkar in Pakistan, including its chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. Rahman was trained at Lashkar camps in Pakistan, before he returned home to found the JMB in 1998. The political patronage received by the outfit it access to substantial resources. The outfit also managed funds from various western and gulf charities.

It is now believed that Billal was raising funds by running weapons between the Malda district of India and Bangladesh, which led to his arrest. Many members of the JMB’s current shura, or leadership council are now thought to be working closely with the Lashkar and Jaish.

Khwaja Amjad of Harkat ul-Jihad-e-Islami Bangladesh was believed to be a close associate of Shahed Bilal, the former South India commander of Harkat, allegedly recruiting Hyderabad and Bangladesh youth for training in Pakistan. In 2005 Khwaja underwent training in Lashkar camps in Pakistan and organized a terror cell of Harkat After the killing of Bilal and his elder brother Samad in a shootout in Karachi in 2007, Khawja was put in charge of the Shahed Bilal group and started acting as a recruiting agent for several terrorist organizations in addition to conducting operations.

In 2005, Khwaja was involved in a bomb blast at Police Commissioner’s Task Force office in Hyderabad which killed one policeman when a Bangladesh national blew himself up inside the Task Force office. Khawja allegedly had close links with those who were involved in Hyderabad in 2007 as well as blasts in other Indian cities. Khawja was also involved in the supply of arms and ammunition to various terror cells operating in India through Bangladesh.

The expanding terror network of Pakistan based Jihadi groups in Bangladesh is a cause for concern. Though the modules of Jaish-e-Mohammed and Laskhar-e-Taiba have been busted in Bangladesh, it is possible that other Pakistani groups could also be active and have not yet been detected. Clearly, now there is a need for closer cooperation between security agencies of south Asia as terror groups have expanded their network in many countries.

Rezwan, the Pakistani national, for instance managed to work freely from Bangladesh for many years. His delayed arrest also underlines the need for improvement in working of intelligence agencies in the region. Finally, the governments of South Asian countries will also have to work to dismantle the local support structure of the extremists so that they do not get shelter. Only a multi-pronged and concerted action will help to eliminate them.

Asia Sentinel - Bangladesh Cracks Down on Terror

 

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Another Pakistan-based Terror Group Exposed in Bangladesh


In continuing action against terror the Shaikh Hasina government in Bangladesh has arrested five Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists. Though this action will give a setback to terrorist groups operating from Bangladesh, it has also raised concerns about the actual scale of the operations of Pakistan-based terrorist groups in that country.

The arrests were made by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) of Bangladesh from Dhaka on February 28, 2010. One of the arrested persons is a Pakistani national while the other four are his local associates. They are linked to the Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed. According to security officials in Bangladesh, the Pakistani, Rezwan Ahmed, had been coordinating JeM operations in the country. He was recruiting locals for the terror outfit and sending them for training in Pakistan. The trained extremists were then used for launching terror attacks in India. Ahmed was freely moving between India and Bangladesh. The four arrested Bangladeshis are - Nannu Mian alias Belal Mandol alias Billal, Abu Naser Munshi, Imad Uddin alias Munna, and Sadeque Hossain alias Khoka. The RAB has also recovered the passport of another Pakistani named Jawad. He is suspected to have fled to India.

During interrogation Rezwan revealed that he had been trained to operate AK-47, machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and explosive devices. But the most startling disclosure was made by Nannu Mian alias Belal Mandol alias Billal, who claimed that he had a role in hijacking the Indian Airlines plane in late December 1999. He had served ten years in prison in Guwahati jail, though on a different charge. After release from prison, he fled to Bangladesh and was plotting new terror strikes against India when he was caught.

In India, security agencies are still not sure about the involvement of Billal in the IC 814 hijacking. Home minister P. Chidambaram felt that reports on the hijacking angle are "seen to be highly exaggerated". However, foreign minister S. M. Krishna said India would take up the matter with Bangladesh once Billal's identity was established. An Indian team would visit Dhaka with details of Billal's links and role in terrorist attacks and seek his deportation once these were confirmed. Billal is also wanted in the Bangalore, Surat and Hyderabad blasts.

Meanwhile, Billal has informed that he was born in Darampur village under Sylhet Sadar in Bangladesh and is married to a woman hailing from Bashirhat, West Bengal. There are four cases pending against him in India. In Bangladesh, this group of JeM terrorists was sheltered by Mohiuddin and his brother Salahuddin who were residing in Sukanya Tower, the place from where the terrorists were arrested. Two of the locals - Munna and Khoka – detained by the police are sons of Mohiuddin Mian. Mohiuddin, who is presently president of Hajiganj union Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in Chandpur, had earlier been involved in the activities of Jamaat-e-Islami. Both Mohiuddin and Salahuddin have also visited Pakistan.

These arrests have highlighted many issues. In the ongoing crackdown against terror in Bangladesh, a large number of extremists have been arrested. Only last year, security agencies had unearthed a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) module which was planning to attack the Indian high commission and the US embassy in Dhaka. This module had members from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. They were also in league with the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

The recent arrests have brought to the fore activities of another Pakistani terror outfit, JeM, in Bangladesh. This is the first time that terrorists linked to this outfit have been arrested in Bangladesh. This has also made people wonder which other groups could be active in that country. Rezwan, the Pakistani national, was staying in the country for the last three years and operating from there. It clearly indicates the poor state of the intelligence network in Bangladesh. It is also possible that the busted module is just the tip of the iceberg.

These arrests have also underlined the lack of cooperation among security agencies in South Asia. When Billal was released from jail in India, security agencies in Bangladesh should have been informed. Such cooperation and sharing of information between Bangladesh and India could have allowed security agencies in Bangladesh to keep tabs on the released terrorist. Probably, this was not done as security agencies of the two countries suffered from trust deficit which thankfully seems to be changing now.

Finally, though many in Bangladesh argue that the country has unwittingly become host to such groups, the political leanings of their local hosts complicate the problem. This indicates that there is a constituency in Bangladesh which supports such elements. These extremists would create a much bigger problem for the whole region, if they get state support, as was the case during the four-party coalition rule. For the present, India can heave a sigh of relief as counter-terror cooperation seems to be increasing between the two countries.

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