Ansarullah making drones!

Police say two activists of the radical Ansarullah Bangla Team have been arrested in Dhaka with components for making a remote-controlled aerial surveillance 'drone'.

Tanjil Hossain Babu and Golam Maula Mohan were arrested from a house in Dhaka’s Jatrabari on Tuesday night, Detective Branch officials said.

At a Wednesday media conference, Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam claimed that the arrested were "active leaders" of the militant outfit.

"They were running jihadists at the behest of their Guru Mawlana Jasim Uddin Rahmani," said the police official.

He claimed that the two confessed that they were trying to develop quad helicopters or drones capable of flying over 25 to 30 storey buildings.

“They were trying to make a drone or a quad helicopter to photograph important structures in the country for subsequent attacks.”


Drone is an un-manned aerial surveillance vehicle. It captured public imagination in the last few years after the US widely used them in their 'war against terror'.

Apart from military purposes, these aerial devices are also used to assess weather conditions and in rescue operations.

Engineering students in Bangladesh have developed such remote -controlled drones equipped with cameras and tested them out.

But until now, there was no information of radicals trying to use them.

Ansarullah Bangla Team hit the spotlight in late 2013.

Its chief Mufti Jasim Uddin Rahmani was arrested along with 30 other activists from Barguna in Aug this year.

Police had then said that the outfit was planning to attack police stations and other establishments across the country to start a 'Jihad' (religious war) to overthrow the government.