bdnews24.com :
Neo-JMB leader Mainul Islam alias Musa was radicalised by executed JMB leader Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, according to relatives and neighbours.
Musa hails from Rajshahi’s Bagmarha and got involved with militancy in 2004, when he was an 11th grader at the Taherpur Degree College. Bangla Bhai, who headed the executive council of Jamaa’tul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), had gained notoriety in 2004 when he and his accomplices murdered two men in Raninagar.
They had hung one of the bodies upside down from a tree, the picture making news headlines.
In February 2005, the government banned the JMB . On Aug 17, the militant group orchestrated a string of simultaneous explosions in 63 districts of Bangladesh.
Its ideologue Shaykh Abdur Rahman was arrested on March 2, 2006, in Sylhet, four days before Bangla Bhai’s arrest in Mymensingh.
They were hanged on March 30, 2007 along with four other militants for the murder of two judges in the southern district of Jhalakathhi.
Musa, who the police say is the ’emerging leader’ of the Neo-JMB, is the son of late Abul Kalam Molla from Bajrakhola village of Bagmara’s Ganipur Union. Bajrakolla resident Manjurul Alam told bdnews24.com Musa got involved with the JMB in 2004. “Several people came to his house then and stayed for 2- 3 days.We had no idea what was going on,” he said. Neighbours said Musa went into hiding, when the crackdown on JMB began. He emerged several days later and took the Higher Secondary Certificate exams.
After graduating, he started teaching at a school in Dhaka’s Uttara, where the daughter of slain Neo-JMB leader and former army officer Jahidul Islam studied. Musa’s mother Sufia Begum said retired Major Jahid and Musa lived in the same building with their wives and children.
“Musa and Major Jahid were close. Several people came to the house and they would hold meetings on the roof. I realise now, what they discussed,” she told bdnews24.com. The last time Musa went to his ancestral home was eight months ago, said Begum. “He had then burnt several documents, including pictures. He told us that he’s going to Saudi Arabia, for which he sold some land. Since then he had not contacted us.”
Neo-JMB leader Mainul Islam alias Musa was radicalised by executed JMB leader Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, according to relatives and neighbours.
Musa hails from Rajshahi’s Bagmarha and got involved with militancy in 2004, when he was an 11th grader at the Taherpur Degree College. Bangla Bhai, who headed the executive council of Jamaa’tul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), had gained notoriety in 2004 when he and his accomplices murdered two men in Raninagar.
They had hung one of the bodies upside down from a tree, the picture making news headlines.
In February 2005, the government banned the JMB . On Aug 17, the militant group orchestrated a string of simultaneous explosions in 63 districts of Bangladesh.
Its ideologue Shaykh Abdur Rahman was arrested on March 2, 2006, in Sylhet, four days before Bangla Bhai’s arrest in Mymensingh.
They were hanged on March 30, 2007 along with four other militants for the murder of two judges in the southern district of Jhalakathhi.
Musa, who the police say is the ’emerging leader’ of the Neo-JMB, is the son of late Abul Kalam Molla from Bajrakhola village of Bagmara’s Ganipur Union. Bajrakolla resident Manjurul Alam told bdnews24.com Musa got involved with the JMB in 2004. “Several people came to his house then and stayed for 2- 3 days.We had no idea what was going on,” he said. Neighbours said Musa went into hiding, when the crackdown on JMB began. He emerged several days later and took the Higher Secondary Certificate exams.
After graduating, he started teaching at a school in Dhaka’s Uttara, where the daughter of slain Neo-JMB leader and former army officer Jahidul Islam studied. Musa’s mother Sufia Begum said retired Major Jahid and Musa lived in the same building with their wives and children.
“Musa and Major Jahid were close. Several people came to the house and they would hold meetings on the roof. I realise now, what they discussed,” she told bdnews24.com. The last time Musa went to his ancestral home was eight months ago, said Begum. “He had then burnt several documents, including pictures. He told us that he’s going to Saudi Arabia, for which he sold some land. Since then he had not contacted us.”
