News Desk :
A top leader of banned militant outfit Ansar Al Islam’s was arrested on Thursday (July 15) night by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Dhaka.
RAB arrested Ansar Al Islam’s spiritual leader Mahmud Hasan alias Gunabi following a raid near Beribandh area under Shah Ali Police Station in Dhaka on Thursday night.
During the raid, RAB personnel also allegedly seized extremist books and leaflets.
Commander Khondker Al Moyeen, Director of the
RAB’s Legal and Media Wing, said it at a press conference held at the elite force’s media centre at Karwanbazar in Dhaka.
He said arrested Mahmud Hasan alias Gunabi had admitted to a madrasa after studying upto Class V. He completed Taisir Dawae Hadith from Jamia Rahmania Arabia at Mohammadpur in Dhaka in 2008. Then he joined different madrasas in Dhaka, Cumilla, Noakhali, Khagrachhari, Bandarban and Cox’s Bazar as a teacher. Besides, he joined different religious organisations. He started delivering waz from 2010 and involved himself in spreading extremism in religious deliberations since 2014.
Moreover, he got involved in religious books trading.
Khondker Al Moyeen said Gunabi was first involved with Huji. They he developed close relations with Jasim Uddin Rahmani. Subsequently, he got involved in Ansar bangla Team (Ansar Al Islam). Following the arrest of Jasim Uddin Rahmani, Gunabi had established himself as a precher of extremism.
The elite force’s official said Gunabi went into hiding to evade arrest. He went Khagrachhari from Cumilla and remained in hiding in inaccessible areas. Following the drives of law enforcing agencies, he changed his position and took shelter in Khagrachari. He stayed there two to three days. Then he passed several days changing his positions frequently between Char Gazaria and Char Ramiz in Luxmipur district. Sensing the arrival of law enforcers, he again left the place. Then he decided to go into hiding at North Bengal and if necessary, planned to leave the country.
Meanwhile, Gunabi’s family said at a press conference in Noakhali district town that Gunabi had gone missing as a group of plainclothes men picked him from Noakhali on July 6.
His wife Saraban Tahura said that her husband went to meet his acquaintance Yusuf in Karmullah union on July 6.
There a group of plainclothesmen introducing themselves as members of law enforcement agencies picked him up from there, she alleged.
Gunabi, a Mufti, is the son of late Abdul Kader of village Gohnabati in Chowddagram upazila of Cumilla district.
He is a known face in the Islamic circle of social media where he speaks in favour of Taliban and their ‘winning’ in Afghanistan.
