Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit (CTTC) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested four members of banned terrorists outfit Ansar al Islam from the capital on Saturday.
Acting on a secret information, a team of the CTTC arrested the four militants on Saturday evening from the city’s Basila area.
CTTC officials claimed that they were taking preparations for carrying out terrorist attack on BGB and Police personnel.
They arrested were primarily identified as Md Jasimul Islam alias Jack, Md Abdul Mukit, Md Aminul Haque and Sajib Ikhtiyar. A machete and five smart phones were recovered from their possessions.
Chief of the CTTC Md Asaduzzaman at a press conference at DMP Media center in the capital on Sunday said, “Ansar al-Islam militant group planned to attack a police and a BGB patrol team in Dhaka and Sylhet.”
They also had planned to migrate to Afghanistan after carrying out a major sabotage attack in the country.
The other two members of this group have already left the country for Afghanistan. The arrested four militants were also planning to flee to Afghanistan through illegal migration after carrying out terrorist attack on law enforcement agencies.
They also recced the police and BGB members for making the plan successful.
The boss of the CTTC said, the arrested terrorists had formed a group called ‘Science Project’ on the telegram app to try to make deadly explosives using oxygen cylinders in order to carry out deadliest terrorist attack.
We have obtained detailed information after capturing seizing their various electronic devices, he added.
The arrested persons attacked a manager of a residential hotel in Sylhet with sharp weapons at the instructions of the senior leaders of the militant outfit. During the attack, the hotel staff was critically injured.
Among the four arrested militants Jasimul Haque, was a BBA first-year student at Atish Dipankar University. Md Abdul Mukit used to teach at Markazus Sunnah Al Islamia Madrasa in Nabiganj Upazila of Habiganj district.
Md Aminul Haque is a student of Al Hidaya Islamic Institute in Sylhet and Md Sajib Ikhtiyar was a student of Sunamganj Government College.
In response to a query on how many militants have already migrated to Afghanistan from the country so far, Asaduzzaman said, "We have learnt that two members of this rganization have migrated to Afghanistan."
Replying to another question why militants suddenly targeted BGB, the CTTC chief said, they had placed the law enforcing agency in the ‘taghut’ category.
About the foreign links of the local militants, he said, “Most of the militant groups which are active in our country claim to have links to al-Qaeda.”
Ansar al-Islam claims to be a branch of al-Qaeda in the subcontinent. For this reason, they may have migrated to Afghanistan, he added.
The senior DMP official, however, said they are still not sure about it. Further investigation will reveal the matter.
Arrested militants planned to cause a large explosion through a gas cylinder. There were 10 members in the group. Through this science group, they had many secret conversations within themselves.
The militants several times discussed with former Hefazat Islam’s joint secretary Mamunul Haque. We will interrogate Mamunul Haque on these issues, the CTTC boss further said.
