On 18th August, Muhammad Yunus-led interim government of Bangladesh released the chief of the Al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist organisation Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) chief Mufti Jashimuddin Rahamani from Kashimpur High-Security Central Jail in Gazipur. Speaking to the media, Subrata Kumar Bala, senior jail superintendent of Kashimpur Jail said, “We released Rahmani around 1:15 pm on Sunday as he obtained bail in all cases filed against him.”
Following his release, prosecution lawyers and counterterrorism officials expressed their concerns as Rahamani is a prominent figure. According to the experts, his release would increase terror threats and cause hurdles in the trials of the cases filed against him under the Anti-terrorism Act.
On 12th August 2013, Rahamani was arrested in Barguna in connection to inciting people to commit violence. 30 members of the Ansarullah Bangla Team were also arrested. Since his arrest in 2013, Rahamani has remained in jail. He is facing six different cases and a charge sheet has been filed by the police in all the cases against him.
On 31st December 2015, a Dhaka court sentenced him to five years in jail in a case related to the murder of blogger Rajib Haider. The case was filed at Pallabi Police Station. He has completed his sentence in the case. Apart from this case, two other cases were filed at Mohammadpur Police Station, one at Gulshan Police Station, one at Barguna Sadar Police Station and one at Uttara Paschim Police Station. The trial is pending in all these cases. In two cases, he was granted bail by the Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal of Dhaka in 2020 and 2022. In 2022, 2023 and January 2024, he was granted bail in other three cases.
Speaking to the media, the chief of the Counter-Terrorism and Transitional Crime unit, Md Asaduzzaman said that his release was a matter of concern for the security agencies. “We are now trying to track down Rahmani and he will be under our monitoring. And we believe we will be able to avert any untoward situations,” he said.
Assistant public prosecutor of the Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal in Dhaka, Golam Sharuar Khan, said that his release would impact the ongoing trials. He said, “As Rahmani has been released on bail … it is likely to impact the trials. Prosecution witnesses may become afraid of going to court to testify against the accused. We will try to produce the witnesses before the court and complete the trials of the pending cases as soon as possible.”
Ansarullah Bangla Team made headlines with the murder of Rajib Haider in February 2013. In May 2015, the Government of Bangladesh banned the organisation. Reportedly, the group has killed at least four bloggers and writers. They were also involved in the murders of LGBT rights activist Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Khandoker Mahbub Rabby Tonoy in 2016.
Ansarullah Bangla Team in India
Notably, in 2017, five ABT terrorists were apprehended in Assam trying to create a foothold in India. In July 2022, two modules were busted in Assam linked to ABT. Again in 2022, two imams linked to ABT were arrested. The two Imams were arrested by the Goalpara Police in Assam as part of a broad anti-terror operation against the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and the Islamic terrorist group Al Qaeda Indian Subcontinent. After being questioned by police for many hours, Jalaluddin Sheikh (49), the imam of Tilapara Natun Masjid, and Abdus Subhan (43), the imam of Tinkunia Shantipur Masjid, Mornoi, were both taken into police custody.
When the two Imams’ residences were searched, authorities said they found a significant quantity of evidence related to Al Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), as well as Jihadi literature, posters, books, and other materials including mobile phones, SIM cards, and ID cards. The two people who were arrested were in contact regularly with the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) units in Barpeta and Morigaon.
In August 2022, Assam Chief Minister informed in a press conference that several jihadi modules of Bangladeshi immigrants have been busted by the police. He said that Ansarullah Bangla Team, which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, had been most active in the state. In the last six months, five modules of ABT have been caught in the state. These groups were busted based on intelligence inputs gathered by both Assam police and central agencies.
