bdnews24.com :
Salehin alias Sunny, one of the convicts in the case over the Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh or JMB’s synchronised bomb blast plan 13 years ago has remained at large as his accomplices are hanged or serve time in jail.
Salehin is one of three top JMB leaders who were abducted from police custody during an attack on a prison van that led to the death of a police officer at Trishal, Mymensingh on Feb 26, 2014.
Bangladesh police announced a Tk 500,000 in reward for catching Salehin, a founding Shurah member of JMB. He is also named on the list of ‘most wanted’ criminals by Indian national investigation agency NIA. Salehin has gone under the name Hafizur Rahman Sheikh alias Mahin several times in India.
It is assumed that Salehin along with fellow militant leader Zahidul Islam Mizan alias Boma Mizan opened a newer fraction of the JMB naming it Jama’atul Mujahideen India or JMI.
Boma Mizan was arrested on Aug 6 during an NIA raid in Bengaluru over bomb blasts in Bihar’s Bodh Gaya and West Bengal’s Badhaman. However, Indian detectives are yet to find Salehin.
bdnews24.com spoke to Additional Deputy-Commissioner at Counter-terrorism and Transnational Crime or CTTC unit of Bangladesh Police Sanowar Hossain about the militant group’s recent activities marking the 13th year of the JMB’s synchronised bomb blast operation throughout the country on Friday.
“Most of the members of the old factions of the JMB have been arrested in Bangladesh and India. They don’t have the same power that they did before. But we believe Salehin, a leader of the old fraction, is hiding in India. It will weaken JMB if we can arrest him,” he told bdnews24.com.
According to police officials, the JMB began its activities towards the end of last millennium led by Shayekh Abdur Rahman. Rahman and some of his associates also took part in the war in Afghanistan.
JMB’s activities began to spread after Abdur Rahman returned from Afghanistan and the organisation came into the spotlight at the beginning of 2003 after law enforcers received information on the organisation from a few militants arrested in Dinajpur and Chapainawabganj.
Another organisation, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh or JMJB emerged in mid-2003 led by JMB Shurah committee chief Siddikul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and also guided by Abdur Rahman. The organisation was active in Bagmara, Rajshahi and Atrai-Raninagar in Naogaon in 2004.
Bangla Bhai and his associates killed Idris Ali alias Khejur Ali and Abdul Qayum Badshah in Raninagar, Naogaon on May 20, 2004 and hanged Badsha’s body upside down from a tree. The attack shocked nation and ‘Bangla Bhai’ became infamous when a photograph of the body was published in media.
JMB made a show of their power by conducting a synchronised bomb blast in 63 districts of the country on Aug 17, 2005 after the government had banned JMB and JMJB on Feb 21 that year.
RAB arrested Bangla Bhai from Muktagachha in Mymensingh on March 6, 2006. Shayekh Abdur Rahman was arrested four days earlier from Sylhet.
Six militants, including Shayekh Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai, were hanged on March 30, 2007 for the murder of Senior Assistant Judge Sohel Ahmed and Jagannath Parhe in Jhalakathi district. Another convict on the same case was hanged on Oct 15, 2016.
The JMB has detonated 500 bombs in 300 places throughout the country and resulted in the death of two people and the injury of nearly 200.
At least 159 cases were filed over the incidents, said Additional Assistant Inspector General in Police Headquarter Md Quamruzzaman. At least 334 were convicted in some of those cases while 52 cases are still in the trial phase with 386 suspects awaiting verdicts.
The organisation slowed down its activities after those incidents but again resurfaced with militant attacks on writers, publishers, online-activists, religious preachers, clergymen and people from different faiths in 2013.
Salehin alias Sunny, one of the convicts in the case over the Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh or JMB’s synchronised bomb blast plan 13 years ago has remained at large as his accomplices are hanged or serve time in jail.
Salehin is one of three top JMB leaders who were abducted from police custody during an attack on a prison van that led to the death of a police officer at Trishal, Mymensingh on Feb 26, 2014.
Bangladesh police announced a Tk 500,000 in reward for catching Salehin, a founding Shurah member of JMB. He is also named on the list of ‘most wanted’ criminals by Indian national investigation agency NIA. Salehin has gone under the name Hafizur Rahman Sheikh alias Mahin several times in India.
It is assumed that Salehin along with fellow militant leader Zahidul Islam Mizan alias Boma Mizan opened a newer fraction of the JMB naming it Jama’atul Mujahideen India or JMI.
Boma Mizan was arrested on Aug 6 during an NIA raid in Bengaluru over bomb blasts in Bihar’s Bodh Gaya and West Bengal’s Badhaman. However, Indian detectives are yet to find Salehin.
bdnews24.com spoke to Additional Deputy-Commissioner at Counter-terrorism and Transnational Crime or CTTC unit of Bangladesh Police Sanowar Hossain about the militant group’s recent activities marking the 13th year of the JMB’s synchronised bomb blast operation throughout the country on Friday.
“Most of the members of the old factions of the JMB have been arrested in Bangladesh and India. They don’t have the same power that they did before. But we believe Salehin, a leader of the old fraction, is hiding in India. It will weaken JMB if we can arrest him,” he told bdnews24.com.
According to police officials, the JMB began its activities towards the end of last millennium led by Shayekh Abdur Rahman. Rahman and some of his associates also took part in the war in Afghanistan.
JMB’s activities began to spread after Abdur Rahman returned from Afghanistan and the organisation came into the spotlight at the beginning of 2003 after law enforcers received information on the organisation from a few militants arrested in Dinajpur and Chapainawabganj.
Another organisation, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh or JMJB emerged in mid-2003 led by JMB Shurah committee chief Siddikul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and also guided by Abdur Rahman. The organisation was active in Bagmara, Rajshahi and Atrai-Raninagar in Naogaon in 2004.
Bangla Bhai and his associates killed Idris Ali alias Khejur Ali and Abdul Qayum Badshah in Raninagar, Naogaon on May 20, 2004 and hanged Badsha’s body upside down from a tree. The attack shocked nation and ‘Bangla Bhai’ became infamous when a photograph of the body was published in media.
JMB made a show of their power by conducting a synchronised bomb blast in 63 districts of the country on Aug 17, 2005 after the government had banned JMB and JMJB on Feb 21 that year.
RAB arrested Bangla Bhai from Muktagachha in Mymensingh on March 6, 2006. Shayekh Abdur Rahman was arrested four days earlier from Sylhet.
Six militants, including Shayekh Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai, were hanged on March 30, 2007 for the murder of Senior Assistant Judge Sohel Ahmed and Jagannath Parhe in Jhalakathi district. Another convict on the same case was hanged on Oct 15, 2016.
The JMB has detonated 500 bombs in 300 places throughout the country and resulted in the death of two people and the injury of nearly 200.
At least 159 cases were filed over the incidents, said Additional Assistant Inspector General in Police Headquarter Md Quamruzzaman. At least 334 were convicted in some of those cases while 52 cases are still in the trial phase with 386 suspects awaiting verdicts.
The organisation slowed down its activities after those incidents but again resurfaced with militant attacks on writers, publishers, online-activists, religious preachers, clergymen and people from different faiths in 2013.
