ASRAFUL HUQ

Different intelligence and law enforcing agencies are out on a manhunt for some Islamic clerics including Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqur Rahman alias Bangla Bhai as they have information that these extremist leaders have international links.

An agency report says warrant of arrest against Shaikh Abdur Rahman, the suspected mastermind behind August 17 serial bomb blasts, has been issued.

A highly placed source in an intelligence agency confided to this correspondent yesterday that six trainers in religious militancy came to Bangladesh from the Indian states of Bihar and Punjab last December and held meetings with Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai and some other leaders of different Islamic militant parties.

All the fanatic militant leaders of India and Bangladesh used to maintain close international links and had connections with Kuwait and they were provided with funds for carrying out terrorist activities by some billionaires of Kuwait, according to a competent source.

He said that eight instructors came from three states of India?Bihar, Hariyana and Punjab?over the last three years and trained nearly 100 followers of the religious zealot Abdur Rahman in using sophisticated firearms.

The source said the members of the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) had been trying their best to find out the names of the instructors who came to Bangladesh from India to train the disciples of Abdur Rahman and the names of those disciples and the leaders of political parties with whom Dr Asdullah Al Ghalib, professor of Rajshahi University, and Shaikh Ataur Rahman, had talks in Bangladesh in December, 2004.

Dr Ghalib was arrested along with his three associates, Prof Maulana Abdus Salam Shalafi, Principal of Madrasa Naohata, Prof Nurul Islam, Secretary General of Ahale Hadith Andolon Bangladesh (AHAB) and its Organising Secretary ASM Azizullah from a madrasa at Naodapara on the outskirts of Rajshahi on February 23. Ghalib is now in police custody.

But Abdur Rahman and Siddiqur Rahman alias Bangla Bhai went into hiding after the government launched a crackdown on Islamic militants in different areas of the country, especially in northern region.

The six suspected militants have said that Jamiatul Mujahedin chief Abdur Rahman and his followers were responsible for the subversive incidents that occurred in different parts of the country recently, according to competent sources.

Abdur Rahman received training on the use of sophisticated arms, ammunition and explosive in Kashmir and Afghanistan, the sources said.

The law-enforcing agencies are going to form a special team to nab Abdur Rahman, leader of the recently banned Islamic militant outfit Jamatul Mujahideen, sources said.

The members of the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) have been grilling Maulana Fariduddin Masud since Tuesday at its Dhaka office to extract information on his domestic and foreign links.

Maulana Farid was arrested from Zia International Airport on Monday and he was taken on a 5-day remand on Tuesday for debriefing by the joint interrogation cell on his suspected links with Islamic militancy.

In a major move the government had frozen the three bank accounts of Maulana Farid on Wednesday.

Maulana Farid receive a huge amount of foreign donation, especially from some Muslim countries of the Middle East, with which he runs around 500 mosques and madrasas, sources said.

The law enforcing agencies are likely to launch a special drive in Satkhira district following receipt of ?vital information? on concentration of Islamist militants there who are planning retaliation against the government?s recent crackdown, according to sources.

The law enforcing agencies have found some clues about the involvement of Jamaayate Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) from the six arrested suspected Islamic militants during the interrogation at JIC.

The bomb attacks were apparently planned to destabilise the country, which they believed would create an opportunity to launch an Islamic revolution aiming at seizing state power.

The members of Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) brought the six suspected Islamic militants together for interrogation to review and assess the information they received earlier through separate interrogation.

The JIC hopes that the case might take a dramatic turn if they could get the information they were seeking from the arrested persons.

The members of JIC will review and assess the information they received earlier through separate interrogation.

Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) has admitted its involvement in August 17 countrywide bomb blasts on Thursday night through circulating leaflets across the country. The city dwellers, police and intelligence agencies were panicked due to circulation of the leaflets.

Some JMB militants distributed leaflets with the headline "History of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)" in front of IFIC Bank at Khan-e-Sabur Road in Khulna from a white microbus and managed to flee the scene. The JMB leaders admitted their link in the August 17 countrywide bomb blasts in the leaflets. Police failed to nab anyone in connection with the distribution of leaflets.

In the leaflets the JMB cadres claimed that Abdullah-Hel-Baki, Dr Asadullah Al Galib and Siddiqur Rahman alias Bangla Bhai are their leaders.

Meanwhile, Gulshan police recovered a local made live bomb from Amtali at Mahakhali under Gulshan police station at around 2 pm yesterday.