Escaped militant narrowly survives police raid in capital

One of the two militants whisked away from police custody around a year ago narrowly survived a raid at a hideout on Saturday, the police said at a press briefing Sunday. 

However, some of his associates were not so lucky and were successfully detained in the latest drive, said Md Asaduzzaman, chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit (CTTC).

Two death-row convicts from banned militant outfit Ansar-al Islam were snatched by their associates from policemen at Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate court area on 20 November 2022. Though, many of the militant group's members have been arrested since then, the two escaped militants are still at large.

Officials of the counter terrorism unit told reporters Sunday that a raid was conducted at a residence in the capital recently. Just two days before the drive, one of the two death-row convicts had left the house. He had stayed at the house for about a month, police claimed.

"However, we could arrest Ansar Al-Islam's Naib-e-Amir (chief) and his four associates from the residence in Jatrabari area in the capital on Saturday evening," he added. 

The arrestees have been identified as Ihsanul Rahman alias Murad, 26, Md Shakhawatul Kabir alias Anis, 45, Bakhtiar Rahman alias Nazmul, 30, Yusuf Ali Sarkar, 31, and Zahedul Islam alias Ashraf, 35.

Militants snatched two of their convicted associates from the Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate area last year by beating police and spraying some chemical on their eyes. 

Md Asaduzzaman said, "At present, Ansar Al Islam is somehow active among the militant organisations. We think that we have neutralised the challenges posed by the organisation by arresting five people including its top leadership."

Shamin Mahfuz, the chief of Jamaatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya, a new militant organisation that emerged with the help of the Kuki community, was arrested as a member of Ansar Al Islam. 

"He was a member of other like-minded militant organisations while he was in jail planning a new organisation," Asaduzzaman said.

"We have arrested more than 95% of the Sharqiya members. Those who are at the leadership level have been arrested. We think, by arresting Shamin Mahfuz, we have managed to root out Sharqiya," he added. 

"We are working on separatist group Kuki-Chin National Front and their top leaders," CTTC chief added. 

The CTTC also said that like the Sharqiya, another organisation called Imam Mahmud's Kafela was trying to be active in the hill-tract. "But we were able to identify and arrest them before they could organize and nipped the organisation in the bud."

About the potential of Ansar Al-Islam attacks ahead of the national polls, Asaduzzaman said, "We will quiz its arrested members in this regard. It is true that militant organisations want to exploit such situations. When law enforcement agencies are focusing on other tasks, they try to organise and recruit members. But now the situation is not like before. Earlier, there were no units like CTTC, which is only tasked with containing militancy," he added.