They are no longer into small arms and crude crackers only. Local terrorists over the years have mastered the skills of making deadly weapons like rocket launchers, mines, car bombs, and cycle bombs. They even took initiative to make drones. Besides, various types of sophisticated weapons like AK-47 assault rifle and MK-11 sniper were recovered from them in the last three to four years. In close liaison with cross-border terror outfits, they not only went abroad to train in making arms and explosives, but also brought in foreign experts for training programmes within the country. Piecing together information gleaned from captured militants, findings of investigators and news of the recoveries, we get a picture where militants appear to have developed much earlier the capacity to launch attacks like the July 1 Gulshan café strike. Though law enforcers had considerable success in recovering arms and ammunition, the policymakers failed to foresee the looming crises. They didn’t notice the ominous signs in the reports of the recoveries, security experts observed.
As the possibility of further attacks like Gulshan and Sholakia cannot be ruled out, the experts call for constant vigilance, especially to prevent building of new terror networks and stockpiling of weapons by militants. “The recovery of arms and explosives proves that our law enforcers are vigilant. But what if an extremist group manages to gather military strength beyond the knowledge of law enforcers?” said security expert Brigadier (retd) Shahed Anam.
“There is always a risk like that. So the government must focus on capacity building of law enforcement agencies.” DMP’s counterterrorism unit chief Monirul Islam believes that no radical group is likely to emerge with considerable military strength again because of continuous raids, seizures and arrests. “But to eliminate the threat permanently,” he said, “we need to do a lot of capacity building.”
FORGOTTEN NEWS
One can recall that experts were brought in from Pakistan to train militants on making car bombs. Two Pakistani nationals — Mehmud and Osman — came to Bangladesh sometime in 2012 posing as businessmen. When it came to the knowledge of the detectives, the two were interrogated several times but no information could be gleaned from them. So they were produced before a court and sent to jail for suspicious activities under section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. They came out on bail about a year later.
Then their mentor Fakhrul Hasan came to Dhaka from Pakistan. The Detective Branch of police arrested the three from the gate of Shilpakala Academy in the capital on January 19, 2014. A manual on bomb-making was found with them. Their laptops contained information about training on military weapons. In police interrogation, they confessed they were members of Tehrik-e-Taliban of Pakistan. After primary interrogation, Monirul Islam, also additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), told the media that the Pakistani militants were capable of making 12 types of explosives, including car bombs and grenades. A group in Bangladesh has brought them to train militants. The official said attempts were on to detect the group and arrest them. It is not known whether the group has been tracked down or efforts to do that are still on. In February this year, DB police recovered a good number of car bombs from Mohammadpur in the capital. The information was not given to the media thinking that it might spread panic. It is possible that the trainers from Pakistan before being arrested trained others on making car bombs or some new trainers replaced them. DB police on December 16, 2014 arrested two members of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) at Jatrabari in the capital with a “drone” or “quadcopter”.
Drone-making project, equipment for making drones and various types of electronic devices were recovered from them. ABT had been manufacturing drone using advanced technology for launching attack on important installations and persons. It is notable that one of the arrestees, Golam Maula Mohan, had studied computer science at a private university in Dhaka. Officials at that time told the media that since the important installations are well guarded, the militants planned to strike those from air using drones. After research for about six months, the two arrestees were at the last stage of making a drone capable of carrying a 30Kg bomb. They made the drone for carrying out attack from the top of a 25-30-storey building. The incident of recovering a bicycle bomb from Karnaphuli Garden City area in the capital’s Shantinagar on March 8 last year was beyond the imagination of the detectives.
Explosives were put inside the rods of the bicycle. It was meant to explode with a big bang the moment it comes in contact with fire. At that time Rab said that if it exploded, the bicycle bomb could cause a disaster within 30 yards. The militants attacked the Hossaini Dalan premises in Old Dhaka on the night of October 23 last year with three grenades made with chemicals. Two persons, including an adolescent, were killed in the incident. That was the first attack in the country using a bomb or grenade made with chemicals. In a 15-hour raid on December 24 last year, detectives recovered 16 hand-made grenades, two hand bombs, some suicide vests, pipe bombs and equipment for making more than 200 grenades. The suicide vests were of special type — it had “double switch” system. If one switch somehow fails to trigger the explosion, a backup switch is there. Explosives, arms, bullets and money could be kept in the vest at the same time. After the recovery of a huge amount of arms, ammunition and new type of suicide vests, Monirul Islam of the DMP said it was a high-profile raid. On December 27 last year, police recovered an MK-11 sniper rifle along with 250 bullets from a JMB den. This semiautomatic weapon is highly accurate and durable. Its firing rate is 750 rounds per minute and the range 1,500 yards. A military uniform and rank badge were also found with the modern rifle, made in the United States. The explosives recovered were enough to blow up four buildings, said the then chief of Chittagong Metropolitan Police. On February 20, detectives recovered some car bombs, handmade mines and some new kinds of grenades from two apartments in the capital’s Mohammadpur and Dakkhin Khan. Each of the grenades weighed between 3-4kg. At least eight hand grenades that looked like tennis balls were also recovered. Police at the time said the grenades, bombs and explosives found there could blow up multi-storey buildings. The grenades looking like tennis balls were the new invention of the militants. On April 4, high-power explosives were found in Bogra. Made on the model of Arges grenades, those explosives were capable of causing massive destruction. It was possible to make about 300 powerful explosives with bomb-making materials recovered then. On May 23, 2010, JMB chief Saidur Rahman, caught by police, admitted that the JMB militants had suicide vests and rocket launchers. They even successfully tested several rocket launchers in areas near the Sundarbans in Barguna and in remote areas of Jamalpur district. Police recovered 10 suicide vests from a Siddhirganj den on May 24 on information given by the JMB chief. A bomb found there was of a special type. After its pin is removed like a grenade, the outer shell opens on one side. A metallic object gets connected with a battery and electricity begins to flow, causing explosion. Inside the bomb, there is a pencil battery, a circuit and white explosive powder. The powder is pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). A car can be destroyed with just 100 grams of it. When the bomb goes off, tiny pieces of its shell hit the target like splinters. In January, eight AK-22 rifles were recovered from the members of Shaheed Hamza Brigade of Islami Chhatra Shibir in Chittagong. AK-22 rifles were used in the Holey artisan attack. Besides, the law enforcement agencies on different occasions informed journalists about recovery of arms and ammunition. There were AK-47 and submachine guns. In the last 12 years, law enforcers seized over a thousand grenades, more than one hundred firearms and 4-5 tonnes of explosives from militants. Talking to officials dealing with militancy it is learnt that law enforcers hardly have time to look back to the past as they are mostly busy cracking down on Neo JMB or other radical groups. Experts believe that to understand the strategy of new radicals, there is no alternative to studying and investigating the militant activities in the past. They say law enforcers should not forget that many key persons behind those remained out of touch and many mysteries remained unsolved. Source: The Daily Star
