The counter-terrorism and transnational crime unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police has showed banned Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh as the worst extremist outfit among the eight banned Islamist outfits claiming high causalities recorded over the past two decades.
‘Islamic State-inspired’ Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh faction carried out the highest number of attacks, according to the first-ever publication of the unit.
The publication, shared with professionals working to address violent extremism, provides an overview of extremist attacks and recruitments by militant outfits since 1999.
It says that Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh carried out 16 attacks and killed 145 people in 1999–2004.
The Anti-Terrorism Unit’s intelligence chief additional deputy inspector general Md Moniruzzaman, said that when Harakat-ul-Jihad was active, causalities of extremist attacks had been comparatively high, but since 2008, extremist groups started targeting selective individuals and specific places instead of mass gatherings.
Moniruzzaman also said that efforts against extremism should be continued.
The CTTC chief additional commissioner Md Asaduzzaman said that the banned extremist outfits in Bangladesh could not establish connections or links with the foreign extremist groups but some might have been ideologically inspired by the latter.
‘Every activity of the extremists is under our control now,’ he said when asked whether Bangladesh might see the spillover effects of the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
Jahangirnagar University international relations professor Shahab Enam Khan said that the approach the law enforcement agencies had taken had been adequate and commendable so far.
He, however, said that across the globe, extremism was now deep-rooted.
‘The whole of the government and the entire society must determine an approach to augment the capacities of the law enforcement agencies to deter extremism in Bangladesh which is not only home-grown but also often has transnational linkages,’ he said.
Rapid Action Battalion legal and media wing director Commander Khandaker Al Moin said that they kept monitoring the development in Afghanistan and activities of the Taliban but continued efforts so that the extremists are not able to strengthen their position any further.
He said that they were continuously monitoring cyberspace in order to contain extremism and they found a number of members of Ansar Al Islam, an Al Qaeda-inspired home-grown outfit.
Four extremist groups — Harakat-ul-Jihad, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and its IS-inspired faction and Al Qaeda-inspired Ansar Al Islam — were responsible for perpetrating all extremist attacks in Bangladesh between 1999 and November 30, 2020.
Apart from Harakat-ul-Jihad, the other extremist outfit, JMB, and its frontline branch Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh launched 23 more attacks between 2002 and 2016 that killed 70 people and injured many more.
The JMB’s most significant attack was simultaneous ‘sound bomb blast’ at more than 500 places in 63 of the 64 districts, the CTTC publication stated.
The JMB targeted different NGOs and Sufi shrines and later their prime targets were criminal justice system, including judges, lawyers and police members.
The CTTC stated that Ansar al Islam, initially known as Ansarullah Bangla Team, mainly perpetrated clandestine attacks targeting atheists, online activists, bloggers, publishers and gay rights activists.
The outfit killed 17 individuals in 15 clandestine attacks and left few injured between February 2013 and April 2016.
The JMB faction was a notorious group that targeted worship places of Shias, Ahmadyas, Bahais and Hindus, Christians and Buddhists, Sufi shrines, foreigners and police personnel and installations.
The banned JMB faction carried out 35 major attacks leaving 58 dead in 2015–2019.
This group orchestrated the Holey Artisan Bakery attack in July 2016 and killed 22 people including 17 foreigners. The counter-terrorism officials said they were now pursuing the government to declare ‘Neo-JMB’ as a banned organisation.
Additional inspector general of the Special Branch of the police Monirul Islam wrote in the publication that the JMB introduced suicide bombing in Bangladesh in 2005 and carried out five suicide bombing.
