Police claim defunct JMB leading murders in Bangladesh

Under fire from all quarters for alleged incompetence in solving the murder spree in the country, the chief of police has named the Jama'atul Mjahideen Bangladesh (JMB) outfit to be behind the murders.

Liton Haiderbdnews24.com
Published : 3 May 2016, 09:28 PM
Updated : 3 May 2016, 09:30 PM

IGP AKM Shahidul Hoque presented a detailed report on Tuesday on the 37 murders that have taken place since the killing of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider in 2013.

In it, he squarely blamed the JMB for 25 out of the 37 murders.

The list includes the murder of Japanese national Kunio Hoshi, tailor Nikhil Jowardar and the recent killing of Rajshahi University Professor AFM Rezaul Karim Siddiquee.

In eight of the murders, the police claimed the hand of Ansarullah Bangla Team. This list of eight murders include the hacking of Rajib, Xulhaz-Tonoy and most of the bloggers killed so far.

In the remaining four murders, which includes the murder of Italian national Cesare Tavella in Dhaka and the murder of Abdur Razzak in Jhenaidah, the police did not name any specific organisation but blamed a "terrorist organisation" to be behind the killings.

JMB

The Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh or JMB shot to infamy in 2005 after they executed a string of blasts across the nation. With the names of another two organisations—Harkat-ul Jihad Al Islami (HuJI) and Shahadat-e-al-Hiqma doing the rounds alongside them, the organisation was declared banned.

Security forces claimed that the backbone of the outfit was broken after some of their top leaders including the dreaded Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai were hanged, scores of their operatives were claimed to have been arrested and a huge cache of arms and ammunitions confiscated.

In 2014, however, in a daring ambush on a police van, the outfit displayed their audacity to secure the release of Salauddin Salehin alias Sunny and Jahidul Islam alias Bomaru Mizan -- two of their leaders -- from police custody. The attack left a policeman dead.

Ansarullah Bangla Team

The Ansarullah Bangla Team saw its moment of infamy after murdering blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider in 2014. The outfit was banned the same year.

Its chief Mufti Jasim Uddin is currently in jail.

A few years ago RAB claimed to have arrested a few operatives of the Kashmir-based outfit Laskar-e Tayeba. Later, police claimed to have arrested a few operatives of Islamic State from Bangladesh.

However, ever since the name of the outfit has been doing the rounds in connection with the murders and even the outfit reportedly claiming responsibility for the murders, the security personnel have been dismissive all along about the IS having a hand in the incidents.

IGP Hoque believes that such claims are an eyewash because none of those arrested have confessed to having any links with the IS nor do they have the logistical capability to set up contacts with such an international outfit, the police feel.

Police claim to have solved 34 out of the 37 cases.

These include the murders of writer-blogger Avijit Roy, bloggers Ananta Bijoy Das and Niladri Chatterjee Niloy, publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan, and even the murder mystery of Professor Siddiquee, besides the murders of two foreign nationals.

However only six charge sheets have been made so far.

Among them, only the murder trial of Haider has been concluded. Among the murder cases of online activists, only the murder case of Oyasiqur Rahman Babu is included in the list of the six cases.