Law enforcers often say that militant bodies have become emaciated and do not have leadership or the means to carry out any subversive acts. But the statement is dissonant with the statistics given by RAB because in 2019, the three units of police arrested on average one militant daily.
The question is if these militant bodies are weak since they have so many members. Law enforcers say that while bodies are weak, many people have become radicalized. They are being arrested when planning an act of subversion.
Counter Terrorism and Trans National Crime (CTTC) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested 315 militants in 2019 belonging to nine radical bodies. At this time, materials for bomb making, weapons, radical literature, sharp weapons, mobiles and leaflets were captured.
As per police, radical groups operating in Bangladesh at the moment include: Allahr Dal, Harkatul Jihad Bangladesh, New JMB, Old JMB, Ansar Al Islam, Ansarullah Bangla Team and Hizbut Tahrir.
Regarding arrests, Zia Rahman, chairman of the criminology department of Dhaka University, said: “Militants lose their power once their organisations are weakened.”
Many are radicalized outside an organization and they have to be brought to the right path.”
As per RAB headquarter, till Dec 21, 2019, 228 militant members were arrested, which is the highest.
RAB battalions carried out 115 anti-militant drives in 2019 and of the arrested, 87 are members of Jamat-ul Mujahideen (JMB). During 115 drives, five weapons, six magazines, 13 rounds of bullets, 24 cocktails and grenades were recovered from them.
SP of anti terrorism unit, Md Mahiduzzaman, said: “We have two programmes to suppress militants: soft and hard. Soft programme contains awareness building work while the hard one includes drives.”
Head of CTTC and additional commissioner of police, Monirul Islam, said: “The overall picture of 2019 is positive; but militants wanted to carry out attacks here copying the ones in Sri Lanka and New Zealand. They carried out five attacks on the police in Dhaka and we arrested them.”
But they cannot carry out an attack similar to the Holey Artisan one in 2016, he added.