CTTC arrests 5 ‘HuJI militants’, 1 ‘Al Qaeda member’ in Dhaka
Staff Reporter :
Fakhrul Islam (58), the accused new mastermind of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (Huji), went to Pakistan in 1988 to participate in the war of Afghanistan. From there, he went to Afghanistan and received various training in handling modern firearms including AK-47, LMG and
rocket launcher. He used to practice firing regularly at Samshed Hill in Kandahar.
At that time, Fakhrul met al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar several times. Fakhrul Islam, who stayed in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran at various times, returned to Bangladesh through the India in 1998. And he became new leader of Harka tul Jihad (Huji), a banned militant organization in the country. He planned to reorganize Huzi and launch a major attack at any time.
The Digital Forensic Team of the Cyber Crime Investigation Department of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit (CTTC) arrested 6 members of Huzi along with ringleader Fakhrul Islam from various areas of the capital on Friday.
Arrested others have been identified as Md. Saiful Islam (24), Md. Suruzzaman (45), Hafez Md. Abdullah Al Mamun (23), Md. Deen Islam (25) and Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun (46).
CTTC Chief Md. Asaduzzaman confirmed this news in a press conference organized at DMP Media Center on Saturday noon. He said that because of CTTC’s anti-militancy operations and the arrest of several leading people including Mufti Hannan, Harkatul Jihad became leaderless. But this Fakhrul Islam was collecting members of Huji and collecting money and conducting dawa activities on social media.
The CTTC chief also said that the arrested had planned to arrange training for Huzi members of Bangladesh in the hilly areas of Bandarban. Fakhrul and his son Saiful Islam, arrested along with other Huzi members, repeatedly donated large sums of money to the Rohingyas staying in Cox’s Bazar Rohingya camps for the purpose of recruiting them into their organization and to motivate the Rohingyas as part of the Jihadi activities.
