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The Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of police makes the arrest in Dhaka
Published : 23 Jun 2023, 11:37 PM
Police have arrested Shamin Mahfuz, the founder of new militant group Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya, and his wife at Demra in Dhaka.
Additional Commissioner Md Asaduzzaman, chief of police’s Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit, said on Friday night that they made the arrests in a street.
“Maybe they were going somewhere,” he said.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s media wing said a huge amount of arms and explosives were found in their possession during the arrest around 10pm.
KN Roy, a spokesman for DMP, said details on Shamin’s arrest will be disclosed at a press conference on Saturday afternoon.
Shamin, 47, from Gaibandha’s Saghata, was among the top 20 on the merit lists of the humanities stream in the SSC and HSC exams.
After acing 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.
They used to call Shamin “sir” because he taught in a college in Dhaka and then in Bangladesh Open University, according to the RAB.
Shamin 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 connection with a case lodged at Thanchi Police Station 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.
The RAB said although Shamin founded Jamatul Ansar, Anisur Rahman Mahmud was its chief who used a video speech to raise money for the new militant group and to recruit members.
Shamin is the chief coordinator of the organisation’s training operations in the hill tracts, not its head, the RAB said.
Mainul Islam Roxy had been heading the group and after his arrest, Anisur was made its “Amir” or chief in 2022, the RAB said.
Shamin held an important position in the organisation because he arranged the training in the hill tracts, according to the RAB.
Police said Shamin had met in jail another co-founder Mainul, and Abu Sayeed, a Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami leader on death row in the Aug 21 grenade attack case, when they planned to form the new group.
Shamin and Mainul had been in jail on charges related to militancy and they formed the group after being released on bail in 2018, police said.
Shamin and Nathan Bawm struck a deal at a hotel in Cox’s Bazar for the training of militants in exchange for money, police’s CTTC unit said.
It also said the militant group recruited 70 to 80 youths with the objectives to establish a strong position in the hill tracts, conduct military training, carry out terrorist attacks and then return to the hills.
