Profiles of Top Islamist Terrorist Masterminds
 

1. MOTIUR RAHMAN NIZAMI
2. SALAUDDIN QUADER CHOWDHURY
3. ABDUR RAHMAN SHAYAKH
4. SIDDIQUL ISLAM (BANGLA BHAI)
5. MUFTI HANNAN
6. Dr Muhammad Asadullah Galib, head, Arabic dept, Rajshahi university
7. MAOLANA HABIBUR RAHMAN: Sylhet
8. COL (RETD) ABDUR RASHID KHANDAKER
 

Abdur Rahman: The guru of JMBJ forces

Abdur Rahman, known as Shyakh (guru) among his Islamist followers is the spiritual leader of the chief of JMJB forces. Abdur Rahman, one of the signatories of Osama-bin-Laden's international jihadi movement, is the right hand of Jamat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami. Abdur Rahman, the terrorist mastermind, hails from the Chorshigram, a village in Jamalpur district. His working HQ is in the Nayapara area of Jamalpur town.

His father Abdullah Ibn Fazal was a notorious collaborator of the Pakistani army during the liberation war and he organized the para-militia forces (razakar, al-Badr) in his area to kill the freedom fighters. Abdullah was well connected with the Islamists of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arab. Among the locals Abdur Rahman's father was known as Abdullah Maolana. Although Abdullah was actually born in Hazarbari, Jamalpur, he finished his school being reared by his maternal grandpa, and was then settled in the Charshi Khalipa Para. After independence Abdullah was imprisoned due to his collaboration with Pakistan occupation army. Like many of his fellow collaborators Abbdullah was released by the Zia's military govt following the assassination of Sheikh Mujib in 1975. As soon as he was released Abdullah started organizing Islamic gatherings with in order to restore his public profile and to establish himself politically.

Abdur Rahman is the deserving son of his collaborator father. He graduated from Kamal Hat Senior madrassa. In the school Abdur Rahman was an active member of Islamic Chhatra Shibir, the student front of Jamat-e-Islam (JI). Abdullah left nine children- four boys and five gilrs. Abdur Rahman is the eldest of the brothers. Obaidur  Rahman, his brother is a madrassa teacher, Oliur Rahma, the other brother is a teacher in Medina University in Saudi Arab. The youngest brother, Ataur Rahman is one of the leaders of JMJB. In 2003 Ataur was arrested from Khetlalpur, Jaypurhat while launching a terrorist attack. His sisters are all married to the other district leaders of Islamist terrorists.

As the son of a leading Jamat-e-Islam leader, Abdur Rahman was soon sent to Saudi Arabia at party expenses for higher education. On completion of his studies from Medina University in Saudi Arabia, Abdur Rahman worked in Saudi Arabia for a couple of years. During his stay in Saudi Arab Abdur Rahman went to Afghanistan for military training and fought as a mujahedin guerrilla against the  Russians. 

Back to Bangladesh from Afghanistan Abdur Rahman, due to his Jamat and Saudi connection, worked for the Saudi embassy. Using his embassy connection Abdur Rahman made a lot of money by exporting Bangladeshi laborers to Saudia Arab and other Islamic countries. While working for the Saudi embassy Abdur Rahman made his connections with notorious Saudi NGO Al-Harmine Islamic Foundation and Kuwaiti NGO Revival of Islamic Heritage Society. During this time Abdur Rahman joined the Ahle Hadith Islamic movement. Initially Abdur Rahman donated money, sent as Saudi aid, during the Eid among his fellow villagers in order to raise his profile in the community and to develop his network in the region. Abdur Rahman has been developing his terrorist networks since the eighties and covered the towns and villages of northern Bangladesh. Although Abdur Rahman has his terrorist cells in all the schools and madrassas of norhtern Bangladesh, he uses his father's madrassa, Habirunnesa Hafizia Madrassa, as the head office of his terrorist network. In order to train young students as Islamist terrorists, Abdur Rahman founded Al Medina Islamic cadet madrassa. Among his closest peers were the Dr Ghalib, Arabic dept, Rajshahi university and Dr Ershadul Bari, a high profile pro Jamati intellectual.

Although Jamat-ul-Mujahedin was formed in Jamalpur it runs its terrorist activities in the north Bangla region. Abdur Rahman's relatives in Dinajpur and Rajshahi districts helped him to expand his organizational activities in those districts. In early 2002 the first conference of the commanders of Jamat-ul- Mujahedin was held at Khetlal in Joypurhat. During that conference local police arrested 17 terrorists in connection to terrorist activities. Abdur Rahman’s younger brother Ataur Rahman was one of the terrorists arrested by the police. After this incident the commanders of Jamat-ul- Mujahedin went underground and extended their terrorist activities around the country. Following the conference at Khetlal in which his brother and a few other terrorists were arrested after an accidental blast in Dinajpur, Abdur Rahman built his permanent HQ in Rajshahi town and formed the so-called Bangla Bahini whose leader Siddik Ullah is his key associate.

Abdur Rahman is the guru of the Vigilante Muslim Forces (JMJB). Siddik, the ferocious leader of JMJB, once introduced Abdur Rahman to the journalists as his spiritual leader. Abdur Rahman also gave a public speech in a gathering at a local school ground. He also published a manifesto of JMJB as the public front of Jamat-ul- Mujahedin. A local newspaper did coverage on him and publicized his Islamic manifesto. The said newspaper also introduced Abdur Rahman as a member of al-Quaida and a follower of Laskar-e-Toyoba and Jyaish-e-Muhammad. Abdur Rahman runs many terrorist cells using different aliases around the country. Abdur Rahman went underground following the US involvement in the post 21 grenade attack on the opposition leader Sheikh Hasina. 

The last time Abdur Rahman and his terrorists were reported to have seen doing extensive trainings in the Chengania char of the Sapdhari union of Islampur Upazilla in Jamalpur district. The Chngania char is located in the inaccessible areas of the Jamuna river. According to the locals hundreds of Jamat-ul- Mujahedin cadres were seen living in tents on the Chengania char. They were armed, carrying wireless sets, mobile phones, black haversacks, sticks and generators. The terrorists were trained in Chengania char until 14th August 2004. The locals reported to have heard gun shots and heavy grenade explosions. The massive explosions terrified the local villagers. A news about terrorists' training was also published in the Daily Janakantha. Abdur Rahman was also reported to have seen among the terrorists. After the media coverage the police made a move but before they could reach the Chengania char, the terrorists disappeared. Many suspect that the training of the terrorists in mid august may have some connections with the grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina and AL leaders on 21 August 2004. (Source: The Daily Janakantha, 6 September 2004)

According to the locals Abdur Rahman is known as Ehsan Maolana and he often visits the madrassas in the dead of night to inspect the training of the students. A local source told the Bhorer Kagoj reporter that Abdur Rahman's top associates visit the madrassa in private cars (a luxury a very few could afford in Bangladesh) and they stay there for a week. They wear long scarf to hide their identiy and never go outsite the madrassa premises.

Abdur Rahman has two sons and one daughter. He is the brother-in-law of an MP from Jamalpur.

Maolana Habibur Rahman: Talibanist Terrorist Mastermind of Sylhet

Cover page of secret Islamist bulletin: Islamic Revolution

Maolana Mohd Habibur Rahman is the principal of Jameya Madania madrassa located in the Kazi bazzar area of Sylhet. Habibur came to prominence in connection to the grenade attack on the British high commissioner in May 2003. As per the report of the Sylhet police Habibur has been working for two decades as a jihadi activist to wage a Talibanist revolution in Bangladesh.

That Habibur has links with the Talibans in Afghanistan led by Osama-bin-Laden is obvious from his own statements published as a secret party bulletin in 1988 in which Habibur described in details his sojourn in Afghanistan and his meeting with top Afghani leaders.

According to our investigative report Habibur's interview was published in 1988 in a clandestine party bulletin titled Islamic Revolution. The heading of his interview was: The fate of the nation can only be changed if an Islamic state is formed by means of a Taliban style Islamic revolution.

In his long interview Habibur mentioned his travel mates to Afghanistan were: Shaikhul Hadis Allama Azizul Huq, Maolana Ataur Rahman Khan (Kishoreganj), Maolana Sultan Zaok (chittagong), Maolana Abdul Mannan (Faridpur) and Maolana Habibullah (Noakhali).

Habibur is the leader of Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish and the head of "Sahaba Sainik Parishad (Islamic Jihadists' Association).

The Islamic Bulletin introduced Habibur as the key contributor of Islamic movement in Bangladesh and hailed him as the top activist against atheism and secularism. In the past Habibur offered thousands of dollar for the head of the Bangladeshi feminist writer Taslima Naqsrin and mobilized Islamic militants against the Sylhet visit by the celebretee poet Samsur Rahman and the convener of the committee for resisting the war criminals of Bangladesh liberation war, late Jahan-ara-Iamam.

Habibur visited Afghanistan on invitation from Harqatul Jihadil Islam (International Islamic Movement). Below is the excerpt from Habibur's interview: At first we were warmly received with garlands at the Karachi airport. Then we were driven to the Karachi head quarter of Harqatul Jihad where we said our midday prayer which was followed by a delicious lunch. At around 4pm the ameer of Harqatul Jihad Maolana Saifullah Akhtar gave us a warm reception. Then our dear Bangladeshi mojahedin brother, Abdur Rahman Shahid drove us, in an air-conditioned 4WD, to an Afghan Mohajeer camp near the Pakistani border.

At 10:30 pm Bangladeshi mojahedin brother Abdur  Rahman showed up in the camp with his 4WD and drove us to the residence of the head of the Mojahedin Forces, Mr. Abde Rasul Saiyaf. In his massive house, with big flower gardens and patrolled by armed Mujaheed guards and protected by heavy anti air craft guns installed in front of his house, we met many foreigners. The leader (Abde Saiyaf) warmly hugged us.

Habibur's recollections from his visit to a Mujahedin training camp:

At around 4pm in the afternoon on 4 March 1988 we arrived at one of the training camps in Afghanistan. We came out of the 4WD and wanted to enter the camp but the armed guards blocked our way. Our leader then spoke to him in Urdu and we were allowed to go inside the camp. It was actually a training camp. Major Golab Uddin, the principal of a cadet college received us at the gate. Major Golab was speaking English. None of us in our group could speak English. However,  somehow, we conveyed our greetings. Our broken English pleased Major Golab. Following the afternoon prayer (achhar) a group of young Bangladeshi mojahedins, 10-12 in number, came to meet us. The leader of the group was Maolana Abdul Kudds. We were so delighted in being able to speak Bangla after a long time. Right after tea Abdur Rahman turned up with his 4WD. We jumped on the jeep and brother Rahman drove us to an unknown place in the mountains. Driving for hours through the windy roads we stopped at a big camp. To our surprise we saw that about 10 thousand mujahedins from Saudi Arab, Africa, Algeria, Yemen Sudan and many other Islamic countries were undergoing arms trainings. They were firing rocket launchers and the ground was shaking each time a big shell was fired. The sound of the blast and the fire and smoke scared us. But after some time we got our breaths back and were eventually inspired by Jihadi ideology..."

Habibur hailed the Talibans and expressed his firm believe that someday his Afghanistan trained young comrades will be able to stage a Islamic revolution in Bangladesh the way their Afghani brothers have done in Afghanistan.

Mufti Hannan

Another al-Quaida trained Mujahedin operative. Mufti Hannan is on the police list for an assassination attempt on the opposition leader Sheikh Hasina. Mufti Hannan and his gang installed a massive bomb weighing 76 kilos at a public gathering in Gopalganj. Fortunately the army security team detected the bomb before the gathering and dismantled it saving hundreds of lives including the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Wearing burka, under the guise of veiled women, Mufti Hannan killed two youth leaders of Awami Youth League (Awami League youth front iIn Satkania.  Mufti Hannan was also behind killing of  another eight student leaders of Chhatra league on a microbus. Everybody on the bus were gunned down with sub machine gun.

In 2001 Mufti Hannan was sent by the ISI/DGFI to Saudi Arab in the pretext of pilgrimage (Hujj) to attend a top secret meeting of Islamist Jihadists. Members of al-Quaida and other Islamist organisations from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and India attended the meeting. The agenda of the meeting was to wage Islamic revolution in Indian sub continent.

Dr Muhammad Asadullah Galib: Head, Arabic dept, Rajshahi university

The controversial Rajshahi University teacher Dr Muhammad Asadullah Al Galib was associated with a number of radical Islamist organiztions in Pakistan, India and the Middle East, and he also secretly visited India with a business passport in 1998, says an intelligence source.

Accused in more than half a dozen corruption and criminal cases, the Arabic department professor entertained a number of Kashmiri and Afghan mujahideens at his Naodapara Madrasa in the early 90's. Intelligence agencies here, on several occasions since 1999, have reported in vain to the government the suspicious activities of Asadullah, also the chief of radical Isamist outfit Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh (AHAB).

In March 1993, an intelligence agency informed the government high-ups the details about his activities, seeking permission to arrest him for interrogation. However, Asadullah, at a press conference yesterday, denied his involvement with Islamist extremists, claiming his enemies might have paid the arrested militants in Natore and Bogra to name him as their leader in a so-called Islamic revolution that already has produced a series of bomb explosions in cultural programs.

In support of his claim, Asadullah proudly showed off two letters from two parliament members, Rajshahi Mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu (the local godfather of the ferocious Islamist outfit JMJB) and Principal Maolana Abdul Khalek of Satkhira, which stated that neither Asadullah nor his organisation has any link with extremists. The certificates signed in 2004 and given to journalists at the press conference say, "AHAB and its youth front were not involved with any anti-state or extremist organisations." The then RU Registrar Prof Muhammad Yunus, who was killed last year by unknown assailants, issued a show-cause notice on Asadullah in 1998, asking him to explain why he had gone to India without the authority's no objection certificate (NOC).

According to sources, Asadullah, using a business passport, went to India in 1998 and spent 11 days with his spiritual leader Maolana Abdul Matin Salafi. A highly radical religious preacher, Salafi was expelled from Bangladesh by the Ershad government for his anti-state activities. Salafi is connected to a Kuwait-based Islamic charity group, Revival of Islamic Heritage Society, which is one of the major financiers of Asadullah's activities. The Pakistan government froze bank accounts of the organisation following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in the United States.

Asadullah admitted to possessing a business passport, but said, "I cancelled it, and now I have a teaching passport."

DUBIOUS CONTACTS
Pakistani militant leader Maolana Abdullah Nasser Rahmani, a Kashmiri mujahideen named Gazzali as well as other unknown men from India and Pakistan were frequent visitors to his Rajshahi office, according to several former AHAB leaders."I saw Asadullah hosting Arab and Kashmiri mujahideens at his Naodapara Madrasa many times during 1992-93. He (Asadullah) proudly introduced them to us as mujahideens," said expelled AHAB secretary general Rezaul Karim.

Once, in 2000, Rajshahi BDR apprehended four Kashmiri mujahideens from the Godagari border, and also took AHAB Nayeb-e-Ameer Abdus Salam Salafi to a BDR camp for interrogation, intelligence sources said. All of them were later released. But present BDR officials said they were unaware of the incident.

However, Asadullah, who has a long history of run-ins with the court, denied ever having entertained any militants.
Two judicial inquiries in 2003 primarily proved allegations against Asadullah, showing that he misappropriated Tk 18 lakh provided by the Kuwait embassy in 1992 for Islamic development and Tk 11 lakh from the Tawhid Trust. Asadullah was expelled from the ameer post of the Tawhid Trust following the irregularities. He later challenged the decision in a lower court, but it ruled against him. The case is now under trial at the High Court.He was also accused in two additional cases of misappropriating funds from the trust projects at Joypurhat, Comilla and Gazipur. Rezaul Karim, also a lecturer at Bogra Azizul Haque College, also filed a case against Asadullah for attacking his house with petrol bombs in 2002.

NEWS: 17 Feb 05
However, Asadullah admitted that his Islamist outfit, Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh (AHAB), operates in 42 districts with a mission of turning the country into an Islamic state. "Of course, we have political ambitions for an Islamic state, but we do not follow traditional politics. We have our Islamic way of invitation and jihad, which are devoid of terrorism. We will continue our movement unto death," said the bearded man, whom the arrested Islamist militants in Bogra and Natore mentioned with awe as the linchpin in the recent spate of bombings in the northern region of the country.

Sitting in his Naodapara office in Rajshahi, Asadullah told The Daily Star that a vested quarter is out to link him with extremism and that he does not support terrorism in the name of jihad. He has called a press conference for this morning and a countrywide demonstration to protest against the allegation of his involvement with militants. Asadullah has been exposed in newspapers since 2000 for his alleged underground role in various Islamist militant groups.

His name first surfaced in 2000, when militant organisation Qital Fee Sabilillah circulated leaflets calling AHAB its ally, and then again in 2001 after the bomb blast in a JMB den in Dinajpur. In August 2003, police arrested 23 JMB men from Mohespur in Joypurhat after some 150 militants fought with police and looted three of their shotguns and 60 bullets. Several diaries and other documents left by the militants at Montajer's house (camp) also carried Asadullah's name.

Last Monday, 12 arrested militants of Jama'atul Mujahidin Bangladesh (JMB) in Natore, as well as Shafiqullah, a bomb squad member of Bangla Bhai's Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), admitted before magistrates that Asadullah was their leader. Asadullah said he knew Bangla Bhai's spiritual leader, Abdur Rahman, very well. "Rahman is the son of Abdullah Ibne Fazal of Dinajpur. I helped him to study at Madina University, but he later derailed from mainstream Islam."

Replying to a question, he said he last met Rahman in 2000 and did not see him during any Bangla Bhai operations in Rajshahi, Natore and Naogaon. Bangla Bhai's group belonged to AHAB, according to sources. The JMJB leader at Bogra and JMB activists at Natore confirmed that Asadullah used to visit them and inspire them to take action against NGOs and anti-Islamic activities. Founded in 1978, AHAB now has three wings -- for youths, women and children -- as well as branches at the villages and upazilas of 42 districts. Asadullah claimed that his organizations have been functioning legally with the financial assistance from abroad and that they have constructed several hundred mosques at various villages. He also runs a large madrasa built on 19 bighas of land at Naodapara, a NGO named Tawhid Trust and Ahle Hadith Foundation, a  publication outfit.

Source: Bhorer Kagoj (17 Feb05), The Daily Star Vol. 5 Num 259 Thu. February 17, 2005
 

Abdullah Omar Naseef

Dr Abdullah Omar Naseef is the Chairman of the Executive Commitee of the International Islamic University Chittagong, Bangladesh is an extreme Wahhabist who is linked to the Rabita Trust and the World Muslim Congress. This is a brief bio of Naseef and the Rabita Trust.

Biographical Data :
Name :Abdullah Omar Naseef
Biographical detail : Leading Saudi scholar and intellectual.
Prof Naseef has been involved with a number of educational, cultural, political, interfaith and humanitarian causes as former secretary general of Rabita al-Alam al-Islami, Makkah, president of World Muslim Congress, president of the International Federation of Muslim Scouts, vice president Rabita trust for the repatriation of Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh and et al.

Prof Naseef is also involved with the continuing process of Saudi National Dialogue aimed at social, educational and political reforms.

Prof Naseef, a geologist by training and former president of King AbdulAziz University, was awarded the King AbdulAziz Medal of the First Order in 2004.

Rabita Trust:

The US State Department on September 23, 2001 categorised the RT as an organisation linked to international terrorism. The US administration has pointed out that the Rabita Trust is part of a web of charities funding Islamist terrorist movements such as Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.

Formation
Rabita Trust (RT) was formed in 1988 during the term of the then President Ziaul Haq, who was its founding Chairman, with the aim of organising the repatriation and rehabilitation of stranded Pakistanis from Bangladesh.

Objectives
The Rabita Trust describes itself as a as "a popular, international, Islamic and non-governmental organization, at which Muslims from all over the world are represented." It is a charitable organization that assists Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The main objectives of the Rabita Trust are to disseminate Islamic Dawah (culture) and expound the teachings of Islam,
and to ‘defend’ Islamic causes in a manner that safeguards the interests and aspirations of Muslims, solves their problems, refutes false allegations against Islam, and repels inimical trends and dogma which the enemies of Islam seek to exploit in order to destroy the unity of Muslims and to sow seeds of doubt in the Muslim brethren.

Leadership and Structure
Jeddah-based Saudi businessman Wael Hamza Jalaidan is the Secretary-General of Rabita Trust. Jalaidan is reported to be a founding member of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network and is also considered to be its chief of logistics and had fought along with bin Laden against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. He was also temporarily head of the Saudi Red Crescent Society and the Muslim World League during his stay in Afghanistan. He reportedly developed strong linkages with leaders of the various Afghan factions, in his capacity as an official in charge of distributing large scale Saudi relief aid to Afghan refugees. He had also established linkages with the then Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq and his successor former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Jalaidan was one of the three persons during that period who represented Arabs assigned to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The other two were Abdullah Azzam and Osama Bin Laden. Jalaidan is considered to be an expert in arms transportation and distribution. Jalaidan left Afghanistan at the end of 1992 and thereafter settled in Saudi Arabia and is reported to have engaged in ‘commercial activities’. He then joined the ‘aid operations’ to Bosnia, where he supervised temporarily the Saudi Aid Committee, the largest aid organization then in Bosnia. He also assumed the office of the supervisor of the Muslim World League endowments. Jalaidan is also reported to have lived in Arizona, USA, in the early 1980s and headed an Islamic centre there before joining bin Laden in the fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

 

COL (RETD) ABDUR RASHID KHANDAKER

Col Rashid masterminded the killing of Sheikh Mujib, the founder of independent Bangladesh. With support from Libya Col Rashid runs an armed group known as Freedom Party. The leaders of the party are former army officers and corporals. Rashid has so many covert sources of money and arms that even a few young army officers have voluntarily quit their military career and joined his party. Experts believe that Rashid's party members wereinvolved in the assassination attempt on Sheikh Hasina on 21 August 2004.

In 2001 Col Rashid attended a secret meeting in the Hegue organized by the ISI/DGFI and hosted by the owner of a hotel in the Hegue, a fellow killer of Sheikh Mujib in 1975. The agenda of the meeting was to overthrow Awami League and killing of Shaikh Hasina. The political analysts believe that  the 21 August attack on Sheikh Hasian was the outcome of the meeting in the Hague three years ago.