Field-level police officials have been instructed to mount watch on the Rohingyas following allegation that some of them are being motivated to join the Islamic State.
The instruction came from the Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque after a top police official raised the issue at a meeting yesterday.
“We have information that some Rohingya refugees staying in Bangladesh are being motivated and tricked into joining the IS. Again, some of them have already been motivated and are trying to join the militant outfit,” the police official said.
Later, the IGP asked the field-level members of the force to ensure strong vigilance so that the Rohingyas could not go out of their designated places, saying such vigilance was necessary as the Rohingyas look exactly like the Bangalees, said meeting sources.
The police boss gave the instruction while addressing a views-exchange meeting with field-level police officials at the Rajarbagh Police Auditorium yesterday, the fourth day of five-day Police Week-2017.
Rohingyas’ link to militant outfits is nothing new.
Some arrested top militants of banned outfits Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (Huji) Bangladesh had earlier confessed to their links with Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), an insurgent group in the Arakan state of Myanmar.
‘Boma’ Mizan, a top leader of JMB, earlier admitted to the law enforcers that some JMB operatives received training from RSO arms experts in a camp near Myanmar border in 2002. Executed JMB chief Shaekh Abdur Rahman sent them for the training.
Shahidul Hoque also instructed to field-level officials at the bordering districts to be very careful during the verification of identities for passports as militants might flee the country using fake identities.
“Neo JMB” top leader Sarwar Jahan also had a valid Machine Readable Passport that he had got using a fake identity. Sarwar died after he jumped off a five-storey building while trying to flee during a Rab raid in Ashulia in July last year.
Due to continuous anti-militant drives in the cities, the IGP said, militants were opting to build their dens on their outskirts.
The IGP asked the field officials to stay alert so that the militants cannot build such dens.
Recently, officials of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police and Rab busted some dens of “Neo JMB”, an offshoot of JMB, in Narayanganj, Gazipur, Savar and Keraniganj areas.
According to a press statement issued by the Police Headquarters yesterday, the IGP claimed militancy in the country was under control. He, however, asked all the field-level officials to stay on alert.
The IGP said the imams of the mosques and the madrasa teachers must come up with the true interpretations of Islam. He also suggested using community policing to combat militancy.
Militants’ information must be gathered and their relatives’ information also needs to be updated, he said.
In yesterday’s meeting, CTTC unit chief Monirul Islam gave a presentation on combating militancy, while the field-level officials also took part in discussion.
The IGP also asked the officials to increase vigilance on highways so that no three wheelers ply there.
He instructed the officials take all necessary steps and not to listen to any request even if they are from ruling party men, according to meeting sources.
As part of the views-exchange meeting, the police chief also hold special meeting with the Special Branch of police and Criminal Investigation Department.
Source: The Daily Star
