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January 23, 2006
Bangladesh: Was JMB Islamist Leader Captured in India?
We reported on Saturday of a major manhunt in the western district of Kushtia, Bangladesh, which shares a border with the state of West Bengal in India. Following a tip-off, 2,000 security officers, accompanied by helicopters, scoured the region on Thursday 19 January, hunting for Abdur Rahman (pictured), head of the Islamic terrorist organisation Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Bangla Bhai, who is active in JMB and also heads the Islamist group Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB). The manhunt was called off in the early hours of Friday morning.
News comes today from various sources, who announce that a man who may be Abdur Rahman has been arrested in West Bengal, India. Reuters and New Kerala have the details.
A man was picked up at a hideout in Basarat in the southern district of 24 Parganas in West Bengal state on Sunday. He has been taken to New Delhi for questioning. Indian police confirmed that a man had been arrested, but would not confirm his identity. There has not been official confirmation from Bangladesh of whether the detained man is Abdur Rahman.
The man's arrest came after a man named Mohsin, who is a member of JMB, was arrested in North 24 Parganas on Saturday. His arrest led to the arrest of "Rahman" on Sunday.
Rahman, whose younger brother, Ataur, or Sunny, was arrested on December 13 has been in hiding, as has Bangla Bhai, since a nationwide attack on August 17 2005, where more than 400 bombs went off nearly simultaneously in 63 of the country's 64 districts. These bombs injured more than a hundred, and killed two people. At the scene of each bomb was literature, demanding the institution of an Islamic state, governed by sharia law.
Rahman narrowly evaded capture in November 2005, but was apparently tipped off about the raid on a house where he had been staying in Dhaka, the capital.
After Ramadan 2005, the attacks by JMB became worse, with 2 judges killed at Jhalakathi in the south on November 14, and a double suicide attack on court buildings at Chittagong and Gazipur on November 29 killing ten people and injuring more than twenty seriously. Two days later, another suicide attack at Gazipur courthouse claimed two innocent lives and injured twenty.
An arts and culture group in Netrakona district was hit by a suicide bomber on December 8, killing six and injuring 46.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 23, 2006 7:53 PM
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