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December 15, 2005

Bangladesh: Leading Islamist Claims JMB Has Al-Qaeda Contacts

We mentioned earlier that the Chittagong district leader of the Islamist group Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Mohammad alias Aman Ullah, was arrested on Tuesday along with a weapons and explosives cache in the Kattali area of Chittagong city, in the south east of Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Daily Star reports that Mohammad/Aman Ullah has made the claim that JMB has close links with al-Qaeda and the top leaders of the terror group have regular contacts with JMB, in the hideouts of the leader of JMB, Abdur Rahman (pictured, left).

At the headquarters of the paramilitary security service, the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in Patenga, Mohammad/Aman Ullah spoke to a press conference today (15th December). He said that following recent attacks on courthouses in Chittagong and Gazipur, the JMB's next targets were to be non-government organisations and intellectuals.

We mentioned earlier that there have been allegations that one of the minority partners in Bangladesh's coalition government, the Jamaat-e-Islami had been involved with JMB and had also been involved with the more than 400 bombs which went off in simultaneous attacks throughout the nation on August 17, which killed 2 people and injured more than 100.

Mohamad or Aman Ullah said at the press conference that as well as having 200 suicide bombers ready to be "activated", JMB also had the support of thousands of former cadres of Islami Chattra Shibir or ICS. ICS is the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami. These "few thousand" Shibir individuals would assist JMB in its aims to install an Islamist Sharia-based state in Bangladesh.

Ullah's statement on Jamaat involvement was interrupted by a senior attending officer from Rab, who urged the reporters to ask him other questions. "Why don't you ask him about Indian intelligence agency RAW and his visit to India instead of asking him about Saidee?" he said.

Delwar Hossain Saidee is a lawmaker for the Jamaat-e-Islami party, and audiocassettes of his speeches, and also books produced by Jamaat-supported publishing houses, were seized in Ullah's arrest.

Some of the cassettes in Ullah's possession had been made by the cultural wings of Islami Chattra Shibir, Simoom Shilpi Goshthi and Ronagan Shilpi Goshthi.

Perhaps the accusations of Sheikh Hasina (pictured right), the leader of the main opposition party, the Awami League, that elements from within the Jamaat-e-Islami had been involved with JMB, may soon be vindicated.

Ullah's mention of al-Qaeda involvement now also appears to vindicate another claim. We reported on October 23 that Islamist militants had been regrouping in Tangail district, which is hilly and lies in the center of the country.

At that time, India Daily surmised that perhaps the JMB militants were being influenced by al-Qaeda. " But sources and signal intelligence reaching India point towards a major Al-Qaeda figure in Tangail district leading the Jihadists", the article stated.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 15, 2005 6:32 PM

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