Afghan returnee regrouping HuJi-B, say cops after arresting six militants

The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) has claimed to have captured six operatives of the banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJi-B), including one Fakhrul Islam, who was in Kandahar and served under al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden's close protection.

Trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the 58-year-old visited Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar and donated funds to the displaced Myanmar nationals, according to the CTTC.

CTTC chief Md Asaduzzaman said at a media briefing in the capital on Saturday that the HuJi-B is "regrouping", and that Fakhrul was attempting to "reorganise" the banned outfit. He is well-trained to make "explosives" and has trained some of his followers too.

According to the specialised unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police formed to tackle terrorism and transnational crime, the militants had planned to attack important establishments in the country.

From a madrasa security guard to an Afghan warfighter  

According to the CTTC chief, Fakhrul used to work as a security guard at Tamirul Millat Madrasa in Tongi, on the outskirts of Dhaka, before attempting to join Afghan militias.

He added that the arrestee had expatriated to Pakistan's Karachi in 1988 in search of a better job and met with Mufti Jakir Hossain, a Bangladeshi-born Islamic preacher who was one of al-Qaeda's jihadi-training commanders at the time.

Being known to each other, within a few days, Fakhrul got an invitation to join the so-called "Jihad", and he accepted the offer. At different times, Fakhrul went to Kandahar, a remote area of Afghanistan, and joined "long-term" training with Mufti Jakir. According to the CTTC, Fakhrul learned to operate modern heavy firearms like the Ak-47, light machine gun (LMG), and rocket launcher and used to practice firing on the Shamshed Hills of Kandahar.

During the drilling period, he also did a four-hour shift a day to guard the training area, where he could meet Laden and Taliban founder Mullah Omar several times. He had been trained for heavy firearms and tactics, and then he came back to Karachi and travelled to Tehran in 1995. Around three years later, he again returned to Karachi and obtained an Indian visa. In 1998, he returned to Bangladesh.

The Cyber Investigation Division's Digital Forensic team nabbed the HuJi-B men – including Fakhrul, his son Saiful Islam, 24, Suruzzaman, 45, Abdullah Al Mamun, 46, Din Islam, 25, and Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun, 46, – in  different parts of the capital on Friday.

In addition, police seized nine mobile phones from their possession.

At the briefing, the CTTC said that during the anti-militant crackdown across the country, most of the influential HuJi-B leaders lost their momentum, and the outfit's activities went down to nearly zero. However, the CTTC claimed that Afghan returnee Fakhrul had been trying to gather new members, collect funds, and invite people on social media.

'Communication over encrypted apps' 

The CTTC chief claimed that, apart from physical contacts, Fakhrul focused on social media communications to reunite the HuJi-B members.

"He used to have chatters among the members and Bangladeshi expatriates to organise the outfit. He shared messages that contained extremist languages and targets to attack the country's important establishments. All the conversations were happening on encrypted communication apps like BiP," he added.

However, the CTTC chief couldn't clarify when they had planned to attack national establishments and which ones were the targets.

Another arrestee, Hafez Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun, maintained a telegram group named "Mora Sotter Soinik," which translates to "We're soldiers of truth," posing as "Osthai Musafir", the admin of the group.

"He used to send various messages towards Bangladeshi expatriates and HuJi-B members, inspiring them to join extremism and subversive activities," added the CTTC chief.

Had plans to train HuJi-B members in Bandarban 

As HuJi-B went into hibernation after most of its top leaders were arrested or went into hiding, Fakhrul tried to inspire and train the new members. He had the plan to establish a training facility in a remote, hilly area of Bandarban.

According to the CTTC, Fakhrul and his son Saiful visited the Rohingyas, offered donations, and encouraged them to join the militant outfit.

"They went to Rohingya camps several times, paid donations, and invited them to the so-called Jihad," Md Asaduzzaman said. 

Afghan returnee could make 'explosives' 

In another encrypted app, the militants have a private channel named "Ektu Prostuti", which Fakhrul and others used to share content on making explosives.

The CTTC could glean that in that private group, HuJi-B members were given a 10-page document named "Ekti Boma Toiri Koro Tomar Mayer Ranna Ghore" and also uploaded Bengali-language videos on how to make time bombs.

Arrested Abdullah Al Mamun distributed the contexts to the members in order to train them on how to make explosives, and he also directed some of them to make explosives. According to the CTTC, the arrestees and their accomplices used to share extremist and offensive videos and information and exchange secret information among themselves.

The militants used to exchange pictorial training documents along with discussions on extremism and aggressive training in that group, it added.