Members of Al Qaeda, ISIS and other terrorist outfits continue to walk-out of prison in Bangladesh

Three more notorious members of two dangerous terrorist entities belonging to Al Qaeda-connected Ansarulla Bangla Team (ABT) or Ansar Al Islam have been secretly released from two different prisons in Bangladesh under direct intervention of an influential advisor of Trump-hater Muhammad Yunus. Sources said, Yunus regime plans to free all the members of Al Qaeda, Islamic State (ISIS), ABT, Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Hizb Ut Tahrir as well as Rohingya terrorists from prison by the second week of January 2025.

According to information, Al Qaeda-connected ABT terrorist Iqbal Hossain got bail from the court on December 17 and was released from prison on December 23. Two more terrorists namely Harun-Ur-Rashid and Al Amin were released from Chapainawabganj jail and Kashimpur Central Jail Part-2 respectively on December 24. A day earlier, a member of JMB, Jikrullah was released from the Kashimpur Central Jail Part-2.

Harun-Ur-Rashid is the leader of ‘Boishommohin Karamukti Andolan’ an outfit which actively worked in freeing hardened jihadists from various prisons from end of July to second week of August.

In the early hours of December 21, 2024, under the cover of night, Kashimpur Central Jail (Part-2) in Gazipur became the epicenter of a clandestine operation. Authorities there reportedly facilitated the secret release of Jikrullah, one of the convicted killers of blogger Wasikur Rahman Babu and a known operative of the Al Qaeda-affiliated Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), now rebranded as Ansar Al Islam. This release, executed without notifying the nation’s top intelligence agencies, raises serious questions about state complicity and security lapses.

Waiting outside the prison compound were vehicles carrying armed ABT members, who escorted Jikrullah to an undisclosed location. Credible sources indicate that this operation was coordinated by influential figures, including an advisor to Muhammad Yunus, ABT leader Jashimuddin Rahmani, an​d Jamaatul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) chief Major (sacked) Syed Ziaul Haque.

Media and intelligence agencies are kept in the dark by the prison authorities.

On March 30, 2015, blogger Wasikur Rahman Babu was brutally hacked to death in Dhaka by Jikrullah and Ariful Islam, both members of ABT, using meat cleavers. The killers later confessed to law enforcement agencies that they considered the murder a “religious duty”. Rahman was targeted for his support of secularism and his association with Avijit Roy, another prominent blogger and US citizen, who had been murdered just a month earlier by ABT operatives.

Avijit Roy, a Bangladeshi-American, was attacked alongside his wife, Rafida Ahmed Bonya, on February 26, 2015, while attending the Ekushey Book Fair in Dhaka. Roy was killed, and Ahmed sustained critical injuries. Following the attack, the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, through its Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program, announced a US$5 million reward for information leading to those responsible.

T​he Ansarulla Bangla Team, an affiliate of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), claimed responsibility for these killings. The attack on Avijit Roy and Rafida Ahmed Bonya was further publicized by AQIS leader Asim Umar in a video. In 2016, the US Department of State designated AQIS as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and sanctioned it under Executive Order 13224.

The secretive release of Jikrullah is not an isolated incident, rather it is part of the ongoing process of getting dozens of jihadist terrorists released from various prisons in Bangladesh.

Sources reveal that Major (sacked) Syed Ziaul Haque, a notorious jihadist and former Bangladeshi Army officer, continues to wield influence. After a failed coup attempt in 2011, Zia fled to Pakistan, where he received support from the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency. He later joined ABT and quickly rose through its ranks, using his military expertise to strengthen the group’s operational capabilities.

Major Zia, who is currently wanted by Bangladeshi and US authorities, reportedly entered Bangladesh along with several ISI operatives and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members. Since his return, he has coordinated with Jashimuddin Rahmani and maintained communication with imprisoned members of ABT and JMB.

On his release, Alamin will be joining Salauddin Salehin, amir of JMB, who is running activities of this Al Qaeda-linked terrorist entity from West Bengal. Alamin was arrested in connection to snatching leaders of the terror outfit and murdering a police constable.  It may be mentioned here that on February 23, 2014 a group of JMB snatched top three JMB leaders Salehin, Mizan and Rakib from Trishal of Mymensingh from a prison van during transport from Kashimpur Central Jail Part-1 in Gazipur. The JMB men also killed a police constable.

One of the runaway JMB men, Rakib, was recaptured by police and was killed in a “gunfight” with police the next day. The West Bengal chapter of the JMB developed its base in Murshidabad, Maldah and Nadia districts. Until the above incident, JMB leader Sohel Mahfuz was leading the outfit in those districts. But leadership was taken over by JMB emir Salauddin Salehin and since then he has been running activities of this terrorist outfit from West Bengal. His prisoner number in Bangladesh before being snatched from police van was 5031/A.

The intelligence officials identified two persons who had funded the militants’ escape from the prison van in Trishal. They are Mohammad Rahath and Azmir Sharif. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID)  tracked down their mobile phones and found several phone calls made to West Bengal and other parts of India. Police arrested two more JMB leaders – Alamin, and Tito – from Trishal’s Saudkandi area for their involvement in snatching the three JMB​ ​leaders.

Meanwhile, according to media reports, 40 tons of RDX, which Yunus regime purchased from Pakistan has vanished immediately after being off-loaded from a ship arriving from Karachi port in October. It also is learnt on November 13, over 70 trained Pakistani terrorists, who arrived without any documents in a cargo vessel from Karachi vanished under direct hands of Pakistani mission in Bangladesh.

The ship, which mysteriously carried a Chinese name (Yuan Xiang Fa Zhan) and sailed under a Panama flag, also carried over 70 “unidentified Pakistani nationals” who, within hours after the vessel docked, vanished without a trace.

Neither Bangladeshi security nor port officials were given prior information of the presence onboard the ship of the Pakistani nationals.

It is also learnt, Bangladeshi Customs officials who questioned the Pakistanis and wanted to check their travel and other documents were “immediately transferred” at direct instructions from an influential advisor of Muhammad Yunus. Furthermore, the consignment was unloaded exclusively under the supervision of Pakistani personnel, without allowing any Bangladeshi official.

According to a highly-placed source, those vanished Pakistanis belong to a number of terrorist groups, which were given training under the supervision of ISI. They are sent to Bangladesh with the specific assignment of entering India to execute a series of terrorist plots.

Please follow Blitz on Google News Channel