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March 1, 2006

Bangladesh: Wife Of Islamist Leader Detained

News from Reuters India and AKI relates that the wife of Sheikh Abdur Rahman, the head of Islamist terror group Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), has been arrested in a raid in Sylhet (yellow on map).

Earlier today, in Sylhet town, 500 security forces from the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) surrounded a house. They managed to arrest nine people, including Ayesha, Rahman's wife, and her two sons.

Ayesha claimed her husband remained inside the house. The family claimed that the house contained a stockpile of ammunitions and bombs.

Witnesses claimed that police with loudspeakers had been repeatedly urging anyone remaining in the house to surrender.

One man, possibly Abdur Rahman (pictured), shouted from within the building: "Go back, officers. We won't give up until we establish the rule of Allah."

The siege is apparently continuing.

Abdur Rahman was recently given a 40 year jail sentence in absentia, by a court in Barisal, in the south of Bangladesh.

On August 17 last year, a series of bomb blasts ripped through the entire nation, killing two and injuring more than a hundred. At the scene of each of the more than 400 bomb blasts, leaflets from JMB were left, which said that Bangladesh should abandon secular law and institute sharia, or Islamic, law.

Yesterday we reported that 21 people from JMB were given death sentences by a court in Jhenidah for their involvements in six blasts which happened in the district, during the August 17 wave of bomb attacks, while in Sylhet, another JMB Islamist was sentenced to hang for his throwing a bomb at a judge in Sylhet town. The judge survived the attack.

We will obviously be updating this story as more details arrive.

UPDATE: 7.17 pm GMT: The Daily Star in Bangladesh has just released its online edition, and on its front page it seems that Abdur Rahman definitely is holed up in the house, and is still there, while RAB and police try to lure him out while still alive.

His wife Ayesha, and his daughter, 3 sons and a grandson, an activist's wife and a maid are in custody, while big fish Rahman and two JMB activists remain in the two-storey building, threatening to commit suicide. Rahman has asked to speak to Luftozzaman Babar, Bangladesh's State Minister for Home Affairs, demanding that security agents contact the minister to arrange a conference.

Eight explosions have been heard from within the house, but no knowledge of any casualties has been ascertained. A crowd of thousands, kept at a safe distance by RAb and police, have thronged to witness the (hopeful) arrest of the biggest terrorist target in the nation.

For an hour, Abdur Rahman had ranted at the security officers outside, saying that he should not be called by his real name as he is a Mujahid. He shouted out "It's not easy to capture us alive. We'll explode the bombs if necessary. We don't believe in surrendering to anyone except Allah."

In another article, the Star explains that security officers are desperate to retrieve Rahman alive, as he holds the secret of the astonishing rise of militancy in the nation. So far, three of the 7 decision-making cabinet of JMB have been captured. The arest and interrogation of JMB's kingpin would reveal the strands of his network.

There have already been claims made by captured senior JMB members, including Rahman's younger brother Ataur Rahman Sunny, that their funding has come from the Middle East, and Saudi Arabia. Other sources have made claims that there are links between JMB and those in government.

Bangladesh's New Nation also covers the story, saying that RAB men were trying at the time of publication to dig a wall into the house. The nine individuals who surrendered did so around 12.30 pm local time. At the time of lodging their report (8pm local time), the RAB team using a drill machine intended to pump gas into the house, to render those remaining inside unconscious.

The Star also has a biography of Abdur Rahman and history of his group JMB, which gained its current name in 2004, which reveals that he has substantial links with Saudi Arabia. He was in the early 1980s studying at Madina Islami University in SA, and from 1985 to 1990 he worked for the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka.

UPDATE 2: According to DeepikaGlobal tear gas shells have been fired into the house, and water has been pumped in, in an effort to get Abdur Rahman and his associates to leave. The water has been sent in with the intention of rendering the explosives in the house less likely to detonate. A supervising security official said: "Our intention is to arrest Shayek Abdur Rahman alive." Apparently, officers are ready to use tranquiliser dart-guns, to immobilise the activists and allow their capture.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 1, 2006 8:57 AM

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