Staff Reporter :A college student who was allegedly running his own militant organisation in the country was arrested by a special team of Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) from the capital’s Purana Paltan area on Thursday night.The law enforcers suspected him a member of the Islamic State (IS), an international militant organisation which recruits Jihadis from across the world.During the primary interrogation, the arrested person identified as Hafizur Rahman, 22, confessed that he had been engaged in collecting members from across the country, particularly in Sylhet and Habiganj, for expanding militant activities of his group. Members of DB police, led by Assistant Commissioner Md Jahangir Alam, detained Hafizur on a secret information after conducting a raid in Surama Tower at Comrade Monisingh Road around 8:30pm on Thursday, Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of DMP told a press briefing held at the Media Centre at his office on Friday noon. Hafizur, a second year student of Tibriya Government College at Shahjalal Municipality in Sylhet, confessed that he had a link with Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh but he is now working on his own intending to create instability in Bangladesh, Monirul said, adding that he was communicating with the international militant group.Hafizur also confessed that he is an organizer of IS in Bangladesh and he was trying to gather followers to join IS in Iraq and Syria. He also reportedly said that he was involved with the activities of banned Islamic outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). “But we didn’t find any direct link of Hafizur Rahman with central command of the IS. However, we found that he had connection with some people in neighbouring countries,” the DMP spokesman said. “Our Counter Terrorism and Trans National Crime (CTTU) unit found that Hafizur had been maintaining a page: isBangladesh,” Monir said adding that they identified him tracking his web link. Replying to a question, Monirul categorically said that they had no specific information about any Bangladeshi who have joined the IS or are participating in armed fighting. But, we have information about some expatriates who are of Bangladeshi origin fighting for the IS.”We have information that some people are trying to build a bridge of communication via Bangladesh expatriates with the militant group,” he said. The Islamist militant outfits once against become active across the country following the snatching incidence of several militants at Trishal in Mymensingh and the recent speech of al Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri. Besides, they themselves are gathering their members in online and collecting ‘yananat’ (contribution) from them. Specially, they began campaign by opening Facebook’s fan page to join in the so called ‘jihad’ in Syria and Iraq, Monirul said. Earlier on Wednesday, DB police arrested two youths namely Asif Adnan, 26, and Fazle Elahi Tanzil, 24, from Segunbagicha and Eskaton areas in city. Both are members of Islamist militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team, sources said. Asif and Tanzil confessed to having been inspired by the video speech of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to establish AQIS (Al Qaidah in Indian Sub-Continent) network in Bangladesh, they said. They also disclosed that they had planned to go to Syria via Turkey undercover of Tablig Jamaat to take training under the Al Nusra brigade, the sources said.
