Local (Bandarban) Awami League leader among militants arrested Mintu Chowdhury and Uttam Sengupta, bdnews24/bangladesh/2014/11/24/local-awami-league-leader-among-militants-arrested =========================== A leader of the Awami League unit in Bandarbans Naikhyanchharhi is among the five people including a Pakistani citizen arrested as suspected militants in Chittagong City. Police nabbed Md Shafiullah, 38, from Hotel Lords Inn at the port citys Nasirabad on Sunday morning. The four others are Pakistani Mohammad Alam, 44, Salamat Ullah, 40, Mohammad Amin, 53, and Abdul Majid, 31. Shafiullah had contested the last Upazila Parishad election with the ruling partys support. Police suspect the five were connected with Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) which allegedly is involved with Rohingya militants. However, one of Shafiullahs party leaders claimed the man had gone to that hotel to discuss about selling land. But detectives said they were interrogating all the arrestees considering their poosible ties to the Rohingya militants and their activities in Coxs Bazar and Naikhyanchharhi. Allegations have it that some Rohingya refugees are involved in criminal activities abroad by obtaining Bangladeshi passports. Indian intelligence officials recently arrested RSO member Khalid Mohammad alias Khalid from Hyderabad over the Oct 2 Burdwan blast in West Bengal. According to them, Khalid had confessed to have received militant training from Pakistans Tehrik-e-Insaf on behalf of Myanmar outfit Tehrek-e-Azadi Arakan. bdnews24s investigation also found out that Naikhyanchharhi Upazila resident Shaifullah had connections with the RSO. Locals said his father Saleh Ahmed was also involved in RSO-related activities in the past. The local influential family has close ties with the Rohingya people who have illegally come to Bangladesh from Myanmar. Several local residents also said Naikhyanchharhi AL units Human Resource Affairs Secretary Shafiullah works for a faction of the RSO. They said Shafiullah joined Islami Chhatra Shibir, the Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing, after passing SSC from Naikhyanchharhi High School. He passed HSC from Chittagong College. He enrolled at Chittagong Universitys Bangla department, but did not continue studies. He later passed degree from Nangolkot College and completed masters from a private university in Dhaka. He is currently working at Naikhyanchharhis Haji MA Kalam Degree Colleges political science department as an honorary teacher. Local journalists said Shafiullah was also the president of the board of directors of two schools and a madrasa there. A local Awami League leader, asking not to be named, told bdnews24 that Shafiullah was not even involved in party activities six-seven years ago. He joined Awami League after working for his brother-in-law who contested the 2009 Upazila Parishad election for chairman. Naikhyanchharhi Upazila AL unit General Secretary Taslim Iqbal said Shafiullah was not involved with any militant organisation. He told bdnews24 that the party leader went to Chittagong to discuss about selling his personal land. Shafiullah ran for chairman in this years Upazila polls, but was defeated by BNP-led alliance backed candidate Tofayel Ahmed. BNP leader Ahmed is one of the accused in a case filed over the rampage in a Buddhist village in Coxs Bazars Ramu Upazila. Salamat Ullah, arrested with Shafiullah on Sunday, was also allegedly involved in the arson and vandalism at Ramu. Salamat is locally known as a chief organiser of RSO in Coxs Bazar. Another arrestee, Majid confessed to police that his parents were of Rohingya origin. His passport showed that he was born in Saudi Arabias Makkah. He visited Thailand, India, Qatar, Bahrain and Turkey in past one year. The Pakistani Pakistan national Mohammad Alams father is one Md Yasin of Karachi, according to his passport which police have confiscated. He has come to Bangladesh for the second time in the past one year. A huge number of Rohingyas are living at Naikhyanchharhi, near to Myanmars border, in Bandarban for long. RSO has long been working at the remote hill tracts Upazila and sponsoring Rohingya militants, detectives have claimed. Chittagong Metropolitan Polices (CMP) Detective Branch (DB) also suspect that the other four had met Alam at that hotel as RSO contacts. Alam is the director of Netherlands-based voluntary organisation Global Rohingya Centre, police say. According to his passport, he arrived in Dhaka on Friday from Jeddah. He came to Bangladesh on Mar 20 and left four days later. On both occasions, he collected Bangladesh visa from Jeddah. Also, he visited Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bahrain and Sudan in past 12 months. CMP DB Deputy Commissioner Kusum Dewan told bdnews24 that they were considering different angles while questioning the five arrestees. CMP have also formed a seven-member team to conduct the interrogation that began on Sunday afternoon. A DB official, seeking anonymity, told bdnews24 that they were looking for details about the arrestees connection to Rohingya militants of Coxs Bazar and Naikhyanchharhi. The official said they were also trying to find the reasons behind Alam visiting Bangladesh twice in a year during the questioning. Published: 2014-11-24 00:57:32.0 BdST Updated: 2014-11-24 02:29:20.0 BDST ========================== Top RSO leaders, Pakistani national remanded Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong dhakatribune/crime/2014/nov/25/top-rso-leaders-pakistani-national-remanded ========================== They did not give any concrete information while also providing misleading information. So we sought their remand The law enforcers have found that an internal feud amongst Global Rohingya Centre (GRC), its sister concern Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) and Myanmar sectarian outfit Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) resulted in the arrest of five of their top leaders and activists in Chittagong City on Sunday. Concrete reason behind the dispute is yet unknown, but police suspect that it might have been caused due to feud over financial issues, sources in the Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) said. Police said they would be clear about the intention of the five after an in-depth investigation. Meanwhile, a Chittagong court yesterday granted police five-day remand for the two RSO top leaders, a Pakistani national who is also the GRC vice-president and two others. Fifth Metropolitan Magistrate Ahmed Sayeed passed the order in the afternoon when the five arrestees were produced before the court. Police sought 15-day remand under section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The five were produced before the court after initial interrogation. CMP’s Detective Branch (DB) nabbed RSO top leaders Salamatullah and Shafiullah, also an Awami League leader from Naikkhyangchhari in Bandarban; Pakistani national Mohammad Alam; Saudi Arabia expatriate Abdul Majid, who is a Rohingya of Ukhiya upazila in Cox’s Bazar; and Hefazat-e-Islam madrasa’s teacher Mohammad Amin. They were detained from three rooms of Hotel Lords Inn around 1pm on suspicion of connection with militant activities. Later, they were interrogated by a Joint Interrogation Cell of the CMP at the DB office, DB Additional Deputy Commissioner Hasan Chowdhury said. During interrogation, police found some sensitive information, DB Deputy Commissioner Kushum Dewan, who led the interrogation team, said. The official did not disclose the information for the sake of investigation. “They did not give any concrete information while also providing misleading information. So we sought their remand,” he said; adding that the law enforcers were verifying identities of the detainees. On the matter, no CMP official said anything on record mentioning that the incident was a serious matter for national security. However, several high officials of the CMP, seeking anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that the RSO’s Bangladesh wing might have broken into several factions. “We heard that two Saudi nationals funded for the GRC while the five gathered in the hotel on Saturday night to distribute the money. It was supposed to be donated for mosques, madrasas and other facilities for Rohingyas. They thought that their rival factions might inform the detectives fearing to be deprived of the fund,” an official said asking not to be named. Shafiullah contested in the last upazila parishad election with the ruling party’s support at Naikkhyangchhari. He is the human resource affairs secretary of the upazila unit Awami League. He works for a faction of the RSO. Local sources said his father Saleh Ahmed had also been involved with RSO-related activities in the past. Salamat is locally known as a chief organiser of the RSO in Cox’s Bazar. Majid confessed to police that his parents were of Rohingya origin. His passport showed that he was born in Makkah of Saudi Arabia. He visited Thailand, India, Qatar, Bahrain and Turkey in the last one year. Mohammad Alam, son of one Md Yasin of Karachi, runs the Netherlands-based GRC. According to his passport, he arrived in Dhaka on Friday from Jeddah. He earlier came to Bangladesh on March 20 and left after four days. On both occasions, he collected Bangladeshi visa from Jeddah. CMP Additional Commissioner (crime and operation) Banaz Kumar Majumder said everything would be clear after the interrogation ended. ========================== #Pakistan | #Rohingya | #Bangladesh | #Netherlands | #PakistanZindabad | #Bandarban | #Chittagong |#RSO | #StateDept | #Terrorism | #CNN | #BBC | #DW | #AFP | #NHK
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 01:30:10 +0000
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