On April 14, Bangladesh Post had published an exclusive report titled ‘Huji regrouping’ indicating Huji activities.
A top leader of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad - Bangladesh (HUJI-B) was arrested by the Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) on Wednesday . Sources said that the arrested leader of Bangladesh chapter of Harkatul Jihad, identified as 49 years Md Atiqullah alias Zulfikar, had met the most notorious terrorist Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and other leaders - Ayman al-Zawahiri and Mullah Omar of international terrorist organisations.
Earlier on April 14, Bangladesh Post had published an exclusive report titled ‘Huji regrouping’ indicating Huji activities. Zulfikar had recently returned from abroad to re-organize HUJI –B using the issues of Indian Kashmir and Rohingya crisis, CTTC sources said. The report said HUJI-B leader Uzzal, who was convicted and handed the death sentence in the sensational August 21 grenade attack case, is allegedly trying to reorganize the terror group.
According to secret documents obtained by this correspondent, the notorious terrorist now in jail, is conspiring to re-establish the Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist organization to carry out militant attacks across the country. The CTTC also arrested two other accomplices of Zulfikar from the city on Wednesday. CTTC in a special anti-militant drive arrested the terrorists who are now senior leaders of banned militant outfit HUJI-B.
They have been identified as Md Borhan Uddin Rabbani and Mohammad Nazim Uddin alias Shamim, both in their early forties. Acting on a tip-off, a team of CTTC raided at city’s Khilkhet area on Wednesday and arrested them from their apartments. The CTTC officials said that during primary interrogation Zulfikar said that he was the organizing secretary of HUJI-B when executed HUJI-B top leader Mufti Hannan was leading the militant organization in 1996.
Mufti Hannan was executed in connection with deadly grenade attack on then the then British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury in Sylhet on May 21, 2004. Militant Zulfikar was treasurer and international affairs secretary of HUJI-B. Zulfikar left the country for Saudi Arabia in 2007 when the military-backed government had come to power. During his stay in Saudi Arabia, he visited Pakistan several times for organizing HUJI-B.
During the primary interrogations, Zulfikar also acknowledged that he had taken part in the war in Afghanistan and returned. He also disclosed that he is an expert on explosives, especially making bombs. After remaining undercover for a long time abroad, Zulfikar returned to Bangladesh in March this year. He communicated with the old HUJI-B members and started to regroup HUJI-B again.
On his mission, he started to recruit new members and trained them to follow the ideologies of HUJI-B. While recruiting continued he also toured across the country to strengthen the organization. At the same time, he also organized his party He also visited different parts of the country for re-grouping HUJI-B. Meanwhile, Zulfikar was secretly collecting local and international funds for HUJI-B.
Mullah Omar was an Afghan Taliban commander who founded the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 1996 while Ayman al-Zawahiri was Al- Qaeda chief after June 2011. He has orchestrated and carried out several attacks in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and also some in North America and Europe. Sources said that the three HUJI-B arrested leaders were placed on a four-day remand.
