JMB sought military skills from Maj Zia

As conspiracies of militant outfits Jamaat’ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh and Ansarullah Bangla Team continue to unfold, intelligence agencies have found a strong hint which suggests that religious extremists in the country are receiving expertise from a fugitive army officer, Maj Zia, in reorganising, planning and conducting anti-state activities.

The sensational information was unearthed on the first day of police interrogation of seven JMB members including its acting chief Abdullah Al Tasnim, who were arrested from Ashulia early Friday.

Intelligence sources say a high-level meeting between the JMB and the Ansarullah was held at Kashimpur high security jail three months back where both outfits agreed to share resources to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic State in Bangladesh.

“The meeting was held between JMB chief Saidur Rahman and Ansarullah Bangla Team chief Mufti Jashim Uddin Rahmania at Kashimpur high security jail some three months back where they pledged to work together,” a high official of the Detective Branch of Police told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The official claimed that the JMB’s actual plan was to include Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque alias fugitive Maj Zia with their operations, who is believed to be acting chief of Ansarullah Team from behind the curtains. It also wanted to use the charisma of Rahmania as a spiritual leader to boost the moral of the JMB operatives.

“The militants wanted to make sure that the name of Maj Zia will never surface so that he can manage the activities of the outfit from the background. As Rahmania was a spiritual Islamic leader, the militants tried to use his charisma to attract people in favour of their activities,” the official added.

In 2012, the Bangladesh Army in a press conference unveiled that a retired Lt Colonel and his accomplice Maj Zia, then a serving officer on leave, had instigated some other army officers with fanatic religious views to engage in activities subversive of the state and democracy. It also said the duo also tried to reach several non-residential Bangladeshis to force a military coup in the country.

Maj Zia remained fugitive since the incident and had been trying to continue “subversive” activities against the army, the press statement added.

According to intelligence sources, the JMB also believed that the inclusion of Maj Zia to their outfit would help encourage its activists who were detached from the outfit due to various reasons.

Some intelligence reports suggest that Maj Zia had been hiding somewhere between Chittagong and Bandarban, while several other reports claim that he was now in Pakistan.

It was learnt that banned outfit JMB had been following the operations format of international militant outfit Islamic State (IS) while Ansarullah Team follows al-Qaeda. Even Ansarullah Team followers, in their latest display of showing support for al-Qaeda, uploaded the Bangla version of al-Qaeda chief leader Ayman al Zawahiri’s video message on their website where he mentioned Bangladesh as a part of their target.

In last year, Ansarullah successfully managed to gain grounds as the law enforcers were busy tracking and cracking other militant outfits in the country including the JMB.

Intelligence sources said Ansarullah now receives full support from al-Qaeda while several of its activists received training from the international terror group in conducting destructive and violent activities.

Ansarullah mainly started their activities with support of Ezaz Ahmed, a Bangladeshi descendent in Pakistan with close ties to al-Qaeda, while Maj Zia had been working as the planner and decision maker of the outfit,  intelligence officials said.

It is learnt that all instructions and decision of Ansarullah have been given from Pakistan.

Besides, JMB chief Saidur’s eldest daughter Nasrin Akhter and her husband Javed Akhter, who are now reportedly staying in Korachi of Pakistan, have been providing continuous support to the existing JMB members. Nasrin reportedly visited Bangladesh three years back to coordinate the total activities of the outfit after her father was arrested on May 25, 2010 in the capital’s Jurain area.

At the same time, other notable JMB leaders, including condemned convicts Salahuddin Salehin and Jahidul Islam alias “Boma Mizan,” who are reportedly staying in Bashirhat of West Bengal in India, have been in close contact with the JMB leaders and activists in the country.

Another DB official, who was involved in the interrogation, said the JMB also planned to recruit members from public and private universities to make their operations more technologically-sound and harder for the law enforcers to detect.

Initially, two universities were chosen for recruiting members – Dhaka University and North South University. Two arrested university students involved with the JMB were reportedly given the charge of recruiting new members for the outfit.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said: “We have unearthed some common grounds for Ansarullah Bangla Team and JMB members to work together. The JMB members wanted to snatch Ansarullah chief Rahmania in a bid to boost the spirit of its operatives and reorganise their militant activities.”