S’pore detains 8 Bangladeshis

Singapore authorities have arrested eight Bangladeshi workers on militancy charge in April, said the Singapore home ministry on its website.
Singapore claimed they were members of a clandestine group set up by one Mizanur Rahman in March 2016 in Singapore, which he called ‘Islamic State in Bangladesh’.
The eight men are Mizanur Rahman, 31, Leakot Ali Mamun, 29, Ibrahim Sohag, 27, Rubel Miah, 26, Daulat Zzaman, 34, Shariful Islam, 27, Md Jabath Kysar Haje Norul Islam Sowdagar, 30, and Sohel Hawlader alias Ismail Hawlader, 29.
Singapore authorities stated that detention of eight ‘radicalised Bangladeshi nationals’ were also under the Internal Security Act in April.
Of the eight persons, Singapore said Mizanur Rahman was an S-Pass holder while the other seven were Work Permit holders.
They were all employed in the local construction and marine industries, the Singapore authorities said.
The group had also raised monies to purchase firearms to carry out their planned terror attacks in Bangladesh, the Singapore statement said.
The money has since been seized, the statement read.
‘The detained ISB members are still under investigation for their activities in Singapore,’ the statement read.
According to the ISB members, the Singapore authorities claimed there are at least two more members in the group who are in Bangladesh.
As part of the investigations, the Singapore home ministry statement read that another five Bangladeshi workers in Singapore were investigated under Internal Security Act and investigations showed that they were not involved.
‘They [the five persons] have been repatriated to Bangladesh,’ the statement said.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police said a total 13 persons were arrested and five of them were deported to Bangladesh on April 29 and were arrested on Tuesday.
‘We are not sure which militant group they belong to but we have confirmed that the detained persons were radicalised during their stay in Singapore,’ Monirul Islam, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s counter terrorism and transnational crime unit chief, told reporters at the media centre.
‘We are verifying whether the workers had any militancy connection before they had migrated,’ he said.
Monirul, however, said they did not have any information about the eight detainees expect for their arrests.
‘They had arrested a total 13 Bangladeshis who had been living in Singapore since 2007. Five of them had returned recently and we arrested them today,’ said Monirul.
The DMP claimed that five persons were arrested from a house in the capital’s Banasri on Tuesday.
Airport officials said that the five persons were picked on their arrival at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on April 29.
Of the five, Mizanur Rahman, 38, alias Galib Hasan Chowdhury, of Chandpur, who migrated to Singapore in 2008, was identified as the ringleader.
Rana Miah Pilot, 29, of Bogra migrated in 2007; Alamgir Hossain, 31, of Meherpur migrated to Singapore in 2011, Tanjimul Islam, 24, of Chandpur migrated in 2011 while Masud Rana alias Santu, 31, of Pabna, migrated in 2008.
Singapore on Tuesday stated that the militancy suspects focused their plans on returning to Bangladesh to overthrow the ‘democratically-elected’ government through the use of force, establish an Islamic state in Bangladesh and bring it under ISIS’ self-declared caliphate.
Investigations showed that ISB had identified several possible attack targets in Bangladesh.
A document titled ‘We Need for Jihad Fight’ was recovered from Mizanur, which contained a list of Bangladeshi government and military officials who could be targeted for attack.
The ISB members planned to recruit other Bangladeshi nationals working in Singapore to expand the group.
This is the second such incident of arrest of Bangladeshis with radical links, as the Singapore Internal Security Department arrested 27 male Bangladeshi nationals, who were working in the local construction industry, between November 16 and December 1, 2015 under the Internal Security Act.
Of the 27 persons, 26 were deported later and 14 of the deported Bangladeshis are now in jail in under the country’s anti-terror act.

News Courtesy: www,newagebd.net