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December 6, 2005

Bangladesh: District Threatened by Islamist Bombers

The Daily Star today reports that on Monday and today, the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, or JMB, has issued threats to detonate bombs and kill officials in the southwestern district of Satkhira (pink in map).

On Tuesday, a letter was sent to the office of the Assisant Commissioner, Nayeb Ali. The letter threatened to kill him. Another letter threatened members of the Satkhira Press Club.

In all, nine bombs have been threatened on Monday and Tuesday in the district. Three suspected JMB members were arrested from a bus stand in Brahmanpara upazila, states the Bangladesh Independent. Their names are given as Amanullah (24), Masud Ahmed Chowdhury (22) and Mamun-ur-Rahman (25). They are pictured below.

Police Superintendent Abdur Rahim said that a campaign to arrest JMB suspects has been mounted, but it is likely that they have gone into hiding. Many public buildings in Satkhira now have a police guard, and anyone attending the courthouse has to answer questions and be searched with a metal detector. Litigations have also dropped in number. A BNP member said that Satkhira, which lies next to the coast and shares its western border with India, was a "stronghold" of JMB.

The Star and the Independent both cover the story of a find of explosives in Gazipur (Blue on the map).

A JMB cadre named Mazharul Islam aka Masum, aged 16, was arrested on Monday night in Gazipur town, along with his father Hemayet Uddin (54) and mother Hena (45). At least 9 kilograms of explosives were found at the premises, enough to manufacture 200 bombs. The explosive material was ammonium nitrate.

The arrest came after the confessional statement given to investigators following the arrest of Enayetullah Ujjal in Dhaka on Monday morning. Enayetullah, aka Jewel, had been the bomb-maker for the suicide-attacks upon the courthouse at Gazipur town. The Independent states that he had given detectives the address of Ataur Rahman, the brother of the JMB leader Abdur Rahman.

Ataur Rahman is said to have organised the attacks on August 17. These attacks happened in 63 of the country's 64 districts in more than four hundred individual explosions. Two people were killed.

When police went to two addresses in Basabo to arrest Ataur Rahman, they did not catch him. The Independent states that Enayetullah has given the names of 25 bomb-makers living in Dhaka and its adjoining districts.

In Sylhet (yellow on the map), officers of the BDR (Bangladesh Rifles) uncovered a cache of explosives, one complete bomb, detonators and fuses from the Tila Forest. They were acting on a tip-off.

We mentioned earlier how the tiny party in the coalition government of Bangladesh, the Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ), had been denying reports that it had been involved with any of the recent bomb campaigns.

Today, the party has come out on the offensive, according to the Bangladesh Independent. The party chairman, Mufti Fazlul Huq Aminee, said that the main opposition party, the Awami Leaque, must have done it.

His reasoning?

Quoting Awami League president Sheikh Hasina's reported remarks that bomb blasts will stop with the resignation of PM Khaleda Zia, he said such remarks prove that "Sheikh Hasina and Suranjit Babu are involved in the blasts."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 6, 2005 8:46 PM

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