Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested two members of the banned militant organization Ansar Al-Islam in Chittagong’s Karnaphuli police station area.
They were arrested on Friday (June 14) during a secret meeting at an abandoned house in the police station’s Shikalbaha Union.
At this time, several Jihadi books and other evidence were seized from them. The arrested accused are Panchagarh District Md. Asaduzzaman Asif (22) and Mohammad Ahad (21) of Pabna district.
According to RAB, on May 23, the intelligence wing of RAB headquarters and a raid team of RAB-3 conducted operations in Gulistan and Signboard areas of the capital and arrested 3 members of Ansar Al Islam. Sensational information came out in their interrogation.
They were inspired by the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and joined Ansar al-Islam, a militant organization of Al Qaeda ideology. After that, when the activities of RAB slowed down a bit, a new militant organization named ‘Shahadat’ was established. Since then various activities were being conducted in the name of this organization including collecting new members.
RAB also said that currently the number of members of this organization is more than hundred. They use ‘End To End Encrypted’ various messengers and mobile apps to communicate. Especially a mobile app called ‘Beep’ has become quite popular with them. It is being used as their main means of communication. It is known through information technology that the ‘Shahadat’ group is managed by an expatriate named Salahuddin. He is currently staying abroad.
Other members of this group are staying in different areas of the country including Dhaka. Following this, the intelligence wing of the RAB headquarters and a raiding team of Chittagong RAB arrested the two from Shikalbaha Union area of ​​Karnaphuli police station.
Senior Assistant Director of Chittagong RAB. Sharif ul Alam said that the arrested accused said during initial interrogation that they joined the militant organization after listening to the provocative speech of various extremist leaders. Later they themselves were conducting recruitment and invitation activities in the name of ‘Shahadat’ group. Their main objective is to establish an Islamic caliphate in Bangladesh. For this purpose, it collects new members through misrepresentation through various religious misinterpretations including torture of Muslims in different countries. After that, through various misinterpretations and false information, they created disgust about the judicial and governance system of the country and radicalized them to establish an Islamic state.