Syria-returned IS fighter arrested in Dhaka

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Nuruzzaman Labu
Published : 00:27, May 07, 2019 | Updated : 00:00, May 12, 2019

Mutaz Abdul Mojid Kafil Uddin Bapari, 33, was arrested from capital Dhaka on Sunday (May 5)

Counter terror police in Bangladesh have arrested a man, who allegedly had travelled to Syria to fight for the Islamic State.
Motaz Abdul Majid Kafiluddin Bepari was arrested from capital Dhaka on Sunday (May 5) by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
“The Bangladesh national went to Syria from Saudi Arabia. He has been arrested during a raid in Uttara,” Deputy Commissioner Mohibul Islam of the CTTC told Bangla Tribune.
Investigators said Motaj entered the country in February from Turkey with a Bangladeshi passport.
Born to a Bangladeshi father and a Pakistani mother, the 33-year-old was brought up in Saudi Arabia and can only speak English and Arabic, according to counter terror officers.
“He obtained a Bangladeshi passport in 2014 from the embassy in Riyadh, which he used to travel to Turkey in 2016 but failed to enter Syria from there. In 2017, he took a second attempt to enter Syria via Egypt and Turkey from Saudi Arabia and failed again. Finally in May 2018, he entered Syria and fought for the Islamic State,” an official familiar with the investigation said on condition of anonymity.
When the Islamic State’s so-called ‘caliphate’ started to collapse late last year, he fled to Turkey and tried to go to Europe via Greece. After Turkish authorities stepped up efforts to hunt down IS foreign fighters, he came to Bangladesh on Feb 1, according to the counter-terror officer.
Soon after arriving Dhaka, Mutaz came in touch with activists of several terror groups “in his bid to establish caliphate in Bangladesh”, says the CTTC of Dhaka metro police.
He was arrested on Sunday from the capital’s Uttara during a meeting with activists of neo-JMB, the splinter group of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, which the police blame for the 2016 café attack in Dhaka.
The counter-terror police, however, did not clarify whether any other arrests were made during the raid.
Motaj was booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act and on Monday (May 6), was produced before a court, which granted investigators four days to grill him in custody, said Shawkat Akbar, general registry officer of the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court .
Crime scene officials inspect the explosion area at Shangri-La hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 21, 2019. REUTERSThe news of Syria-returned militant’s arrest comes just two weeks after the Sri Lanka series bombings, which claimed over 250 lives and was reportedly claimed by the Islamic State.
Most of the attackers of that coordinated bombings went to Iraq and Syria to fight for the Islamic State, according to Sri Lankan investigators.
The most horrific terror attack on Bangladesh soil till date was the 2016 attack at Gulshan’s Holey Artisan Bakery, where 22 people, mostly foreigners, were killed.
Two police officers died when the attackers opened fire and hurled bombs soon after the attack unfolded on the night of Jul 1 at the upscale eatery at the heart of the diplomatic enclave in Dhaka.
The five attackers were killed the next morning when army commandos stormed the restaurant.


Investigators said Bangladesh-born Canadian Tamim Chowdhury, who had visited Iraq and Syria on several occasion before he came to Dhaka in October 2013, masterminded the attack.
He was later killed during an anti-terror raid in Narayanganj.

Combination of photos shows Gazi Kamrus Salam Sohan alias Abu Abdullah and Bangladeshi-born British Samiul Rahman alia Ibne HamdanIn 2016, elite police unit Rapid Action Battalion said it arrested one Gazi Kamrus Salam Sohan alias Abu Abdullah, who had travelled to Syria to fight for the Islamic State.
He has been in jail since then after being booked under the anti-terror Act. Investigators said that Sohan went to Syria via Turkey on Dec 11, 2014 and returned to Bangladesh in May 2015.

Earlier in September 2014, police arrested a Bangladeshi-born British Samiul Rahman alia Ibne Hamdan, who investigators said was in Dhaka to recruit members for Islamic State.

Hamdan, who fought for Al Nusra Front in Syria, later secured bail before fleeing to India. He was arrested from Delhi on Sept 17, 2017 and has been in jail in India sicne then.

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