‘Old JMB’ militants robbing, snatching now to pay for leaders’ cases: Police

The members of the ‘old faction’ of the banned militant outfit Jam'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) are robbing and mugging people nowadays to meet the costs of their leaders’ cases and run the organisation, police say.

As many as seven Old JMB members were arrested from Tejgaon area of Dhaka with a huge cache of arms, gold, money and a huge body of stolen items.

Briefing the media after the arrest, counterterrorism unit chief Monirul Islam revealed the plight of the Old JMB faction.

Speaking about the arrests, DMP Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman told bdnews24.com that the seven were arrested following an operation at Tejgaon area on Monday evening.

"They are associated with several cases of dacoity in various areas of the capital. They use the stolen wealth for their leaders and the organization," he said.

The seven arrested are Md Kasem alias Kusar alias Kasu, 20, Najmul Hasan Noyon alias Noresh, 23, Md Rashed alias Kaklir Baba, 27, Md Sentu Hawalder alias Jahid, 26, Md Abu Bakkar Siidik alias Sbubhro alias Akash, 20, Md Abdul Based, 22, and Md Jewel Sarkar alias Sohrab alias Sarkar, 32.

Tk 600,000 in cash, 67 gram gold, four pistols, five magazines, 10 rounds of ammunition, nine machetes, TV, laptops, motorcycle and other robbed items were recovered from them.

DMP Deputy Commissioner Monirul Islam said, "These are Old JMB members. Moulana Saidur Rahman and Abu Taslim are their leaders. They are in jail now. They loot people in and around Dhaka to collect money to fund the release of the two men."

He said that evidence had been found of their involvement in two incidents of dacoity in Banani and Tejgaon.

On Feb 21, 2005, when the government banned the JMB and its activities, the group demonstrated its might by setting off a chain of blasts across 63 districts.

On Mar 30, 2007 JMB top notch leaders Shaykh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai were executed for their role in the car bombing of Jhalakathi District Senior Additional Judge Sohail Ahmed and Jagannath Pandey.

Although police later claimed to have broken the backbone of the JMB through continuous operations, security agencies have blamed the same outfit for most of the terror attacks in the last three years.

Police blamed a new faction of the same outfit, calling them Neo-JMB, after the Jul 1 Gulshan attack and the Jul 7 Sholakia attack.

Monirul said that security agencies believe the current 'Ameer' (chief) of the JMB, Salauddin is in hiding in India.

"The groundwork is being done for the merger of Ansar al Islam and the new faction", he said.