Md Atiqullah

Top Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) leader Md Atiqullah returned to Bangladesh from Dubai in search of ‘sponsors’ to support terrorist activities.

“A former HuJi leader named ‘Mufti Shahid’ who is in hiding in Dubai and a few ‘Pakistani men’ sent Atiqullah to the country,” bdnews24.com quoted anti-terror police chief additional commissioner Monirul Islam as saying.

Atiqullah was arrested along with two of his associates during a raid at Khilkhet in Dhaka on October 2.

Islam said Mufti Shahid and the Pakistani individuals sent Atiquallah to Bangladesh to look for sponsors in March.

He said Atiqullah came to strike a ‘bargain’ with a certain source after assuring them that there wouldn’t be any acts of sabotage in the country.

Islam, however, has refused to comment on the country being targeted by the militant.

But several officials involved in the investigation said HuJi and other extremist outfits enlisted the help of officials at different levels of the administration during the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami coalition government to carry out numerous terror activities in Bangladesh and its neighbouring country.

The Pakistani intelligence agency used the militants from Bangladesh as pawns in the efforts to create unrest in India.

Police earlier had said Atiqullah sought to reform the militant organisation to capitalise on the Kashmir and Rohingya crisis.