Target to establish `Khilafat` Banned outfit men regrouping?

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Staff Reporter :A large number of activists of outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) are regrouping with different militant organizations, mainly Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), to intensify movement for ‘Khilafat’.The organizations, including JMB, are recruiting members to fill up the vacuum.In the meantime, some top leaders have been hanged and most of the key leaders have been put in jail, said Monirul Islam, Joint- Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) told the reporters at media center on Friday. At the same time, the two outfits are planning to get their top leaders released from jail, the police official said. “On July 27, the detectives arrested eight JMB men, including its acting Amir Abu Talha Mohammad Fahim alias Pakhi at midnight from the city’s Uttara area. That day they planned to join the Ansarullah Bangla Team to snatch away top leaders of the two organisations from the police,” the DMP spokesman said.Different militant leaders, who were arrested by the police, admitted that they had planned to join the Ansarullah Bangla Team, he said.  Monirul Islam said, “The arrested JMB men planned to snatch away JMB’s incumbent Amir Maulana Saidur Rahman and Ansarullah Bangla Team chief Mufti Jashimuddin. At that time they were arrested.”The two top leaders of JMB and Ansarullah Bangla Team are now at the Kashimpur jail in Gazipur district, he said.According to DMP, 107 members of the two organisations were arrested in 2014 in the Dhaka metropolitan area. Besides, 59 were arrested in the current year and 72 cases filed.Police Headquarters sources said, 2,543 members of the outfit organizations had been arrested since 2014. About 632 cases have been filed against them.Monirul Islam said that the target of the JMB and the Ansarullah Bangla Team is to establish ‘Khilafat’. He said, “At present the JMB activities are being channelised by three groups. They are trying to gather strength by dividing themselves into groups and teams.”DMP Additional Commissioner Mohammad Sanwar Hossain said, “Ansarullah Bangla Team is now an active organization. They are continuing their activities. If the JMB join them, their strength will be double.”He said, the JMB and Ansarullah Bangla Team members are staying in the same cell in jail and thus they are becoming close to each other.Dhaka University’s Criminology Department teacher Syed Mahfuzul Huq Marjan said, “JMB men can join any organization to carry out their activities. But it can happen when their ideals match. The target of the JMB was to establish an Islamic State. And the target of the Ansarullah Bangla Team was to establish an ‘Islamic Khilafat’. Because of this ideological similarity, the JMB men are joining the Ansarullah Bangla Team and other militant organization for enhancing their organizational strength.”He said, “The rise of the extremist organisations began with that of the JMB. Then the government took a tough stance and hanged the top leaders. As other top leaders are in jail, they have become weakened. Their number has also declined. As the Ansarullah Bangla Team is now the most active one, the JMB men are joining it for the sake of their existence.”Shaikh Abdur Rahman founded the JMB in 1988. The JMB started its activities across the country in 1998,. It drew attention on August 17 in 2005 by conducting bomb blasts simultaneously in 63 districts and killing judges in Jhalakathi on November 14 in the same year. On March 30 in 2007 JMB founder Shaikh Abdur Rahman, Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and four other top leaders were hanged.On the other hand, the Ansarullah Bangla Team was founded in 2008. But the organization drew attention through the killing of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider on February 15 in 2013.

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