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Published : 10 Aug 2023, 04:41 PM
The Bangladesh government has banned Jamaatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya, a militant group deemed to be a threat to public safety and the law and order of the nation.
"It appears to the government that the declared activities of the militant group/organisation called Jamaat Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya are against the peace and order of the country," the home ministry said in a notice on Thursday.
“The activities of the party/organisation have already been declared as a threat to public security and its activities in Bangladesh have been banned."
The Rapid Action Battalion had said that the militant group was ‘in contact with’ Ziaul Haque, the fugitive militant sentenced to death for the murders of writers and bloggers.
On Jun 24, the alleged amir of the group, Md Anisur Rahman aka Mahmud, and two others were arrested by RAB in a raid on a house in Munshiganj’s Louhajang.
A HISTORY OF MILITANCY
With this, Bangladesh has banned a total of nine organisations for militant and radical Islamist activity.
The other eight organisations are Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Jagrat Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), Harkatul Jihad Al Islami Bangladesh (HUJI), Shahadat-e Al-Hikma, Hizb ut Tahrir, Ansarullah Bangla Team, Ansar Al Islam and Allahr Nishedhagga Itihash.
Of these eight, the JMB and four other groups were banned in 2005. Two of JMB’s top leaders – Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam aka Bangla Bhai, were executed for a bomb attack that killed a judge.
Following police and RAB raids, militant activity in the country diminished for a time, but a new group called Ansarullah Bangla Team came to light after the murder of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider in 2013.
After the Ansarullah Bangla Team was banned in May 2015, its members continued to operate under the name Ansar al-Islam under the leadership of Major Ziaul Haque, who planned a failed coup attempt in the army.
Following the Holey Artisan militant attack in 2016, Bangladeshi law enforcers stepped up their crackdown on militancy. Ansar al-Islam was also banned by the government in March 2017 in the context of a series of terrorist attacks and killings.
In August 2022, the family of seven college students from Cumilla and Dhaka left home and went missing.
RAB later said, based on information from some of them after they were found, that the youths had joined a new militant organisation and had left home to join the ‘armed struggle’.
The name Jamaatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya first surfaced around that time.
RAB says several members of Harkatul Jihad, JMB and Ansar al-Islam launched the new extremist group in 2017.
After the arrest of 12 members of the Jamaatul Ansar in two rounds, RAB said that this new militant organisation was being supported by the Kuki-Chin National Front, also known as Bawm Party, a separatist outfit.
The group in the Chattogram Hill Tracts area was believed to be providing the Islamist group with hideouts and training.
After raiding the remote hilly areas of Bandarban and Rangamati and arresting 10 people in October, RAB said that the amir of Jamaatul Ansar had struck a deal with KNF founder Nathan Bom in 2021.
Later that month, the anti-terrorism unit of the police said that Jamaat-ul-Ansar's chief was Shamin Mahfuz, a former Jamaat Shibir activist expelled from Rangpur Cadet College.
On Jun 23, Mahfuz and his wife were arrested in Dhaka’s Demra by the police. A month later, on Jul 24, the alleged amir of the group, Md Anisur Rahman aka Mahmud, and two others were arrested by RAB in a raid on a
