Top militant leader used video speech to raise funds for Jamatul Ansar: RAB

The RAB obtains a copy of the video from recently arrested suspects

The Rapid Action Battalion has said Anisur Rahman Mahmud, chief of Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya, used a video speech to raise money for the new militant group and recruit members.

Abdullah Maimun, chief of the organisation’s recruitment wing, also spoke in the video, the RAB said at a press conference in Dhaka on Thursday. It obtained a copy of the video from four suspects recently arrested in Chattogram.

When a reporter said police had earlier described Shamim Mahfuz as the chief of the new group, RAB spokesman Khandaker Al Moin said the journalists might have misinterpreted police's statement.

Shamim is the chief coordinator of the organisation’s training operations in the hill tracts, not its head, Moin said.

Mainul Islam Roxy had been heading the group and after his arrest, Anisur was made its “Amir” or chief in 2022, the RAB official said.

Shamim held an important position in the organisation because he arranged the training in the hill tracts, he said.

Moin pointed out that police described Anisur as “Amir”. “It was his post, not a part of his name.”

Anisur, 32, a native of Cumilla Sadar South Upazila’s Harkal village, started working in a CNG refuelling station after completing his study in a local madrasa.

He went into hiding after selling some of the properties he inherited in 2021. The RAB said Anisur gave the funds to the organisation

Shamim, 47, from Gaibandha’s Saghata, was among the top 20 on the merit lists of the humanity stream in SSC and HSC exams.

After passing the SSC and HSC exams from Rangpur Cadet College, he studied sociology at Dhaka University, where he became close to Nathan Bawm, a fine arts student who later formed the Kuki-Chin National Front or the Bawm Party, a tribal separatist group in the hill tracts.   

The RAB and police said the Bawm Party sheltered Jamatul Ansar in the hill tracts for training. In the face of a joint operation, the members of Jamatul Ansar left the hill tracts in small groups, Moin said.

They used to call Shamim “sir” because he taught in a college in Dhaka and then in Bangladesh Open University, Moin said.

Shamim did research on small ethnic groups of the hill tracts as part of his PhD at Jahangirnagar University. He bought a piece of land in Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari to farm lemons during the research.

He was arrested in 2011 in a case with Thanchi police for his alleged involvement in extremism. He was freed on bail in 2013 before being arrested again in 2017. He went into hiding after securing bail from the High Court in 2017.