Although he is proving apparently elusive now
and despite an apparent order from the Prime Minister herself has not been
arrested, “Bangla Bhai” was in fact arrested by the Police on 17th August
2002 in Boro Gowla village under Mollarhat Upazilla, Bagerghat District for
attempting to murder Mr. Topon Poddar, President of Boro Gowla Union Awami
League, and his daughter.
(Criminal Case No. 10 and GR No. 116/02).
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|
|
Tapon
Poddar, President of Boro Gowla Union Awami League, attacked by "Bangla
Bhai", operating as Jamaatul Mujahideen in August 2002; recovered
weapons & Arabic language leaflets; "Bangla Bhai" on the
extreme left, along with extremists arrested by the Police and
subsequently released. |
"Bangla Bhai" was arrested, as
Siddiqur Islam Promanik and as a member of Jamaatul Mujahideen
from house of one Hikmat Mollah and Police recovered from his possession
masks, swords, police belts and boots and a diary when he was arrested.
(From the above it is very apparent that
the terrorist network of extremists operating currently in Bangladesh have
extremely close linkages between themselves and are in fact all part of one
major terrorist network operating in different areas under various identities,
such as Jamaatul Majhideen, Jagroto Muslim Janata Bangladesh, Harkatul Jihad,
Shahadat – E Al Hiqma, Hizbuth Tawhid, Jihadi Party, Al Jamatul Islamia etc.
One aspect though is very clear – all
these groups enjoy the active support and patronage of Jamaat Islami, Bangladesh
and the ruling BNP Jamaat Alliance.
The fact that Islamic Oikya Jote, an
important component of Four Party Alliance, publicly voiced its support for
”Bangla Bhai” in a media briefing on 31 May 2004, merely confirms this
statement).
The inaction of the Administration in arresting
“Bangla Bhai” is matched by its cooperation in releasing on 02 June 2004
from custody in Atrai Thana, after arrest, Hemayet Hossain Himu, second in
command of Bangla Bhai’s terrorist outfit.
Although he was sent to jail after the arrest
and spent three weeks in prison, Police astonishingly did not include his name
in the charge sheet and he was released !
The above is a common and disturbing feature of
numerous arrests made the Police of “extremists” over the past two and half
years. In almost all of the cases nothing is heard about the status of the
enquiries and the whereabouts of those arrested.
It is assumed that as with Bangla Bhai above,
all of them have been set free as per instruction of the Ruling Alliance
administration.
“Bangla Bhai”, meaning a brother of or from
Bangladesh, is apparently the nick name that was given to him by fellow
terrorists when he was in Afghanistan and was responsible for acting as a group
leader of people from Bangladesh.
The
Daily Star, 6 May,2004
Cops back jungle rule in northwest
Staff
Correspondent
In
the northwest, he is the law. Women retreat at his approach, hurriedly covering
up their head and face. Those who dare to differ with him know their mistakes
the hard way in his torture cell. Azizur Rahman is his name, but he prefers to
call himself Bangla Bhai, people call him 'the Terror' who leads a gang that
wields guns openly and picks anybody up in full knowledge of police.
In four northwestern districts, police are
patronising Bangla Bhai and his organisation Jagrota Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB),
which has kicked off a drive to apparently 'cleanse' leftist outlaws amid
allegations of enforcement of harsh Islamic codes and crimes against the
vigilante group.
A top police official yesterday said police
stations in Rajshahi, Naogaon, Natore and Bogra were asked to support the group
in its mission, but locals accused its members of meting out harsher punishment
to 'their suspects' and women violating 'their dress codes'.
The group operatives are painting women with
their navels exposed with black, randomly assaulting people terming them as
Sarbahara men, extorting protection money and forcing men to wear beards and
women to put on burka, villagers in the region alleged.
They said they were fearful of the activities of
the group and its 'supremo' Azizur Rahman, but Aziz denied all the charges.
The JMJB, which launched the anti-extremist war
in April in the region crawling with the outlawed operatives, has allegedly
killed seven people and assaulted hundreds of others who oppose them, terming
them as Sarbahara men.
POLICE
SUPPORT
Noor
Mohammad, divisional inspector general of police (DIG), Rajshahi, told The Daily
Star yesterday that Aziz and his men were assisting the law enforcers in
tracking down the outlaws.
"We've
asked police stations to support them whenever they go to catch outlaws."
STRONG FOLLOWING
Aziz launched the organisation on April 1 this
year and claims that the group by now commands 300,000 activists across the
country.
"Our goal is to root out Sarbahara men and
corruption from society, seize illegal weapons and establish the ideal of the
Rasul (Prophet Hazrat Mohammed (SA)," he recently told Hasibur Rahman Bilu,
Borga correspondent of The Daily Star.
On the JMJB's sources of income, he said,
"People from all rungs of society are generously paying us funds, no-one is
pressurised for money. If someone happily makes a donation, there's no
problem."
The
Daily Star, 13 May,2004
Bangla Bhai active for 6 yrs
His
outfit spreads tentacles to establish Taliban-like rule
Julfikar
Ali Manik, back from Rajshahi
Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) of so-called Bangla Bhai has been
active underground for the last six years to establish a Taliban-like rule,
although the Islamic militant outfit has grabbed the limelight only recently.
The JMJB idealises extremist Islamic leaders
and scholars, follows the militant ideals of the routed Taliban of Afghanistan
and spearheads a movement based on jihad, JMJB leaders and other people in the
northwest told The Daily Star.
To reach their goal, the JMJB with three tiers
of workers trained about 10,000 full-time activists across the country and
spends up to Tk 700,000 on them a month.
The activists have orchestrated over 100
operations in different regions, which came to be known as vigilante activities
of different hues, including murders and attacks on people who they believe have
committed crime. The outfit is blamed for killing at least five people and
torturing several others since April 1.
Although newspapers portrayed him as the main
leader of the anti-outlaw vigilante group, Bangla Bhai is one of the seven
members of JMJB's highest decision-making body, Majlish-e-Shura.
Rahman who heads the highest tier of JMJB moved
from his Jamalpur home to Bagmara in Rajshahi after JMJB activities came to
light. The first tier of the outfit has activists called "Ehsar" who
are recruited on a full-time basis and act at the directive of higher echelons,
the amir said. The second tier, "Gayeri Ehsar", has over one lakh
part-time activists. The third tier involves those who indirectly cooperate with
the JMJB.
"We divided Bangladesh into nine
organisational divisions," Rahman said. Khulna, Barisal, Sylhet and
Chittagong have an organisational divisional office each. Dhaka has two JMJB
divisional offices and Rajshahi three. " We would like to serve people and
serve them in line with Hilful Fuzul (a social organisation founded by Prophet
Mohammad (SM) to serve the destitute). We try to awaken people's religious
feelings to establish their links with the creator," Rahman says.
The JMJB has strong bases in Khulna, Satkhira,
Bagerhat, Jessore, Chittagong, Joypurhat, Rangpur and Bogra and spread its
network to most madrasas and other educational institutions in the districts.
The JMJB Amir worked at the Saudi embassy in
Dhaka between 1985 and 1990. He studied at Madina Islamic University is Saudi
Arabia and travelled to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, among other countries.
As recently as last year, he went to Pakistan.
"We don't have direct links with the
Taliban either. The Taliban wanted to establish the ideals of Allah. They did
their part with courage," he said.
Asked if the JMJB idealises the Taliban, he
said: "Our model includes many leaders and scholars of Islam. But we will
take as much (ideology) from the Taliban as we need."
"We don't believe in the present political
trend. We want to build a society based on the Islamic model laid out in Holy
Quran-Hadith," Bangla Bhai said. Asked to clarify his model, he said,
"Just wait and see."
The
Daily Star, 16 May,2004
Villagers nab 19 Bangla Bhai men
Staff Correspondent, Rajshahi
Villagers foiled an operation of the dreaded
Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) at Kalupara in Paba upazila of the
district on Friday night, caught 19 armed operatives of the Islamic militant
outfit and handed them over to Paba Police Station.
The villagers recovered a number of lethal and
sharp weapons, 12 hockey sticks, two iron rods and 10 motorcycles from the
militants. But police filed a general diary and produced the JMJB operatives in
court, showing them arrested under Section 54.
They told journalists at the thana hajat that
they went to the village on the directive of Bangla Bhai. Sources said a group
of about 25 JMJB cadres riding motorcycles went to Kalupara village and forcibly
entered the house of Anisur Rahman. They beat up Anisur's wife Maleka Begum and
asked her to get her son admitted to a madrassah.
Anisur's brother Ahsan Habib announced over the
loudspeaker at the village-mosque that dacoits attacked their house. Thousands
of people from the village and other villages nearby, equipped with various
weapons rushed to the spot, surrounded the house and caught 19 militants.
The 19 JMJB cadres include Abdur Rahman Bipul,
Shahidul Islam, Rafiqul Islam, Ahsan Habib, Mustafa, Mokhlesur Rahman, Chanchal,
Ruhul Amin, Manjur Rahman, Mizanur Rahman, Altaf Ali, Hafez Mofazzal Hossain,
Mantu, Yasin Ali, Shamsur Rahman, Altaf Ali and Aminul Islam.
The
Daily Star, 18 May,2004
Bangla Bhai
Arrest order wrapped in confusion
New JMJB camp
opens in Naogaon
Staff Correspondent, Rajshahi
In the wake of the Islamic outfit's militant
activities, the home ministry on Sunday said it ordered police to arrest Bangla
Bhai, blamed for killing five underground outlaws in the northwest in vigilante
action since April 1.
A senior police official told The Daily Star,
asking not to be named, that arresting the lynchpin or stopping his militant
activities turned impossible for police, as he said the JMJB is sponsored by an
influential quarter.
The
Daily Star, 20 May,2004
Bangla Bhai men slaughter 2 today
Invite villagers
over loudspeaker to attend execution; Naogaon SP unaware
Our Correspondent, Bogra
Operatives of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh
(JMJB) last night announced their latest vigilante action by loudspeaker to
slaughter in public two villagers with apparent ties to an underground gang in
Naogaon this morning.
The Islamic militant outfit, blamed for killing
at least five outlaws in the northwest since April 1, hounded Badshah and Bari
of the banned Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) out of their homes and took
them to its new camp in Kaligram Vetigram village in Atrai upazila.
The announcement that frightened villagers came
as an apparent backlash two days after outlaws killed two cadres of the JMJB led
by dreaded operations commander Bangla Bhai.The JMJB says the two deserve
"death penalty" for their alleged involvement in killing a 'number of
people'.
The JMJB asked its operatives in different
camps to be present in Vetigram village to witness the punishment at 10:00am and
called local reporters by cellphone to be on scene to cover it.
Naogaon Superintendent of Police Fazlur Rahman
told The Daily Star by phone last night that he had no information about the
announcement. As this correspondent insisted, he said in exasperation:
"Police are on alert. I don't know how you got this information."
The
Daily Star, 21 May,2004
In cold blood, they beat them dead
Bangla
Bhai vigilantes carry out avowed murders of 3 outlaws; death moan relayed by
loudspeaker; body of one found hanging from tree; police claim to be unaware of
the events
Staff Correspondent
In a show of cruelty beyond imagination, the Bangla Bhai outfit yesterday
openly bludgeoned to death three alleged outlaws in an outlying village in
Naogaon after hours of overnight announcement by loudspeaker of slaughter.
The morning shock came as villagers found one
of the bodies hanging upside down from a roadside tree in Bamongram village in
Nandigram upazila of Bogra, not far away from the northwestern district of
Naogaon.
The rest were not found until 7:00pm although
the militant operatives of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) led by
dreaded operations commander Bangla Bhai boasted that they had also met the same
fate.
Police denied the latest episode of vigilante
action despite repeated announcement of the lynching by loudspeaker and
discovery of the body.
The rough justice of the Islamist outfit,
blamed for killing at least eight outlaws including yesterday's three since
April 1, underlines the jungle rule in the northwest.
Locals said they saw a gang of up to 12 coming
in a white microbus from Kaliganj direction and moved back after hanging the
body from the tree on Singra-Nandigram Road.
The operatives named the victim Abdul Qaiyum,
better known as Badshah Mia, son of Abdul Kader, and branded him as a top leader
of the banned Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP).
Witnesses said as a 'show of respect' to the
villagers, who pleaded that the outlaws not be slaughtered, the JMJB death squad
beat them dead. The tortured groans of the victims were relayed by loudspeaker
to terrorise the neighbourhood. His legs tied, Badshah in lungi bore the
hallmarks of torture in captivity.
The Daily Star alerted Naogaon Superintendent
of Police (SP) Fazlur Rahman late Wednesday night that the vigilante outfit
captured four 'outlaws' and was planning to slaughter them in public in the
morning.
The SP said he or his force had no information
about such a lynching scheme and brushed aside The Daily Star's information as
baseless.
But the villagers will not forget the grisly
scene they witnessed as scores of operatives beat them up with hockey sticks and
poles for hours in Kaligram Vetigram village in Atrai of Naogaon.
Hundreds of people flocked to the scene as the
news spread before Nandigram police recovered the body of Badshah and sent it to
Bogra town for autopsy.
Hours after the killings, the SP in Naogaon and
Additional SP Harunar Rashid told The Daily Star that they were not aware of
such news.
The JMJB men denied killing anyone yesterday
and told journalists that angry relatives of the slain victims and other local
people killed the three outlaws.
They expressed their ignorance about the
missing bodies. "I don't know what the agitated people have done to
them," a JMJB leader said.
The
Daily Star, 23 May,2004
Govt divided over Bangla Bhai arrest
Some ministers
and ruling BNP policymakers strongly favour the killer group activities
Staff Correspondent
The government is sharply divided over whether
to arrest Bangla Bhai, dreaded operations commander of Islamist outfit Jagrata
Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) blamed for killing at least eight outlaws in the
country's northwest since April 1.
Highly placed sources said the dilemma has
stalled the execution of a home ministry order to arrest JMJB chief Azizul Islam
alias Siddiqur Rahman alias Bangla Bhai.
The self-styled vigilante outfit bludgeoned to
death three alleged leftist outlaws in Naogaon last week and is preparing 'to
punish' seven more people including a former legislator and four union parishad
chairmen.
Some senior ministers and ruling BNP
policymakers strongly favour Bangla Bhai's arrest on the grounds that there
cannot be a private force parallel to the law-enforcement agencies to launch an
anti-outlaw drive.
"Whatever this Bangla Bhai is doing is
totally illegal because the law does not permit his actions. On one hand, it
proves that the government has failed and on the other, it is ruining the image
of the country. Consequence of such a militant force will be dreadful,"
said an influential cabinet minister, on condition of anonymity.
Some other BNP leaders, mostly from greater
Rajshahi region, however, have been opposing the home ministry order since its
issuance and supporting the Bangla Bhai outfit all the way. Allegations are
there that a cabinet minister, a deputy minister and several lawmakers hailing
from greater Rajshahi region are backing Bangla Bhai. They maintain that local
people have welcomed Bangla Bhai and his men since police have completely failed
to tame the outlaws in the northwest.
A top home ministry official told The Daily
Star yesterday, wishing anonymity, that the order to arrest Bangla Bhai is not
being implemented due to heavy pressure against the arrest. Home ministry
officials also said they have information that besides the local ministers and
lawmakers, some Islamic organisations and ruling coalition partner
Jamaat-e-Islami's local units are indirectly supporting Bangla Bhai.
A home ministry official quoting intelligence
reports said that two religion-based parties, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, are
not only backing the JMJB and Bangla Bhai, but also helping the Islamist outfit
with manpower and light weapons.
The Daily Star, 24 May,2004
Police
escort JMJB in Rajshahi showdown
Bangla
Bhai militants threaten journos with death, meet DC, SP, DIG
Staff Correspondent, Rajshahi
Several thousand activists of Islamist death
squad Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) armed with bamboo poles and hockey
sticks staged a showdown under police escort in Rajshahi city yesterday
afternoon, threatening journalists with death.
JMJB men on hundreds of motorbikes, three
microbuses, 60 buses and half a dozen trucks powered into the city at 3:00pm in
deviation of their earlier announcement that the rally would be held in the
morning.
The killer group came down heavily on
journalists in two meetings at Shaheb Bazar Zero point and Gourhanga Rail
Crossing and handed over memoranda to Deputy Commissioner (DC) Aziz Hasan,
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Noor Muhammad, Superintendent of Police (SP)
Masud Mia of Rajshahi.
The memoranda protested 'fabricated reports by
a section of the media and several political parties'. The JMJB leaders
threatened to kill journalists for 'misreporting'.
The first rally of the JMJB was addressed by
the chairman of Pakuria union parishad and Bagmara BNP Joint Secretary Besharat
Ullah, among others. Earlier, they laid siege to the deputy commissioner's
office for half an hour since 3.30pm. On the support of several lawmakers to the
JMJB, the memorandum said the lawmakers' names were published to harm their
popularity. "All political leaders including ministers and lawmakers
irrespective of parties are supporting us," it said.
