Dhaka Division (Islamist Terrorism): Timeline (Terrorist Activities) -2019

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) members claimed to have busted a factory of manufacturing fake currency notes in Dhaka's Kadamtali area on January 4, reports Daily Star. RAB arrested a couple, Sumon alias Sagor, (37) and his wife Husne Ara (35), and seized around Bangladesh Taka worth 900,000 in fake notes, unfinished counterfeit Fake Indian Currency Rupees (FICN) worth around Taka 300,000, around one lakh security threads of Indian currency, and fake currency-printing machinery worth Taka 5 crore from their possession, said a press release from the RAB headquarters. Read less...

Around 3,000 garment workers blocked the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway at Uttara locality in the Dhaka city for five hours and set ablaze a bus during protest over the disparity in pay in the new wage structure, reports Daily Star.Workers said the protest arose due to a disparity in the raise of wages among the different grades in the latest wage gazette for the garment workers.The incident was reported during the second consecutive day of demonstration. Read less...

At least 10 people were injured as Police charged batons on garment workers who blocked Dhaka-Aricha highway in Savar on January 8, reports Daily Star.Workers from several garment factories blockaded Savar Bus Stand area on the highway when police went into action around 9:30am, leaving at least ten workers injured.The agitating garment workers have been holding demonstrations since January 6 over disparity in wage raises in the latest government pay scale. Read less...

Garment workers' protests over disparity in their new wage structure once again turned violent as they clashed with law enforcers and vandalised some factories and vehicles in Savar, Ashulia and Gazipur areas on January 9, reports Daily Star. At least 72 people, including 15 policemen and two journalists, were injured in the clashes that led to long tailbacks on both sides of Dhaka-Aricha and Dhaka-Mymensingh highways. Operation of around 170 garment factories was suspended, fearing further unrest. Members of Border Guard Bangladesh had been deployed in the areas around 10:00am to keep the situation under control. Read less...

Readymade Garments workers staged demonstrations and blocked Dhaka-Tangail highway on the fifth straight day to protest the wage disparity on January 10, reports Daily Star. The workers clashed with Police in At least 30 garments workers were injured in clashes with law enforcers at Berun and Kathgora areas of Ashulia industrial area. Read less...

The tripartite committee formed to resolve the labour unrest in garment industry has found disparity in three grades of the workers' pay structure, and has started working to minimise the wage gap that sparked the protests five days ago, reports Daily Star on January 11. The 10-member committee with representatives from the government, union leaders and factory owners said disparity was found in grades three, four and five. Read less...

Counterterrorism Police on January 15, arrested an Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) militant for “directly taking part” in the murders of (LGBT) magazine editor Xulhaz Mannan and his friend in 2016, reports Daily Star. Asadullah alias Fakrul alias Faisal (25), was one of the two ABT men who stabbed and obstructed the security guard of Xulhaz's home in Dhaka's Kalabagan area for letting the three others to hack the duo to death in a flat, Police said. Asadullah was arrested from a house in Gazipur's Tongi area. Read less...

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit recovered a huge cache of firearms, ammunition and explosives during a raid from a militant hideout in DOHS Baridhara area of Dhaka city on January 17, reports Dhaka Tribune. CTTC units recovered two automatic handguns with 11 bullets, two shotguns with two shells, seven jihadi books, cash worth BDT 300,000 and Fake Bangladeshi Currency Notes. Read less...

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operative, Mamunur Rashid alias Ripon, (30), from Gazipur District on January 19, reports Daily Star. Ripon is one of the main accused in the Holy Artisan café attack case. Four sketches of maps, a diary and Bangladesh Taka worth 147,000 were also recovered from his possession. Following the arrest of the militant, JMB), RAB officials revealed that the militant formation was planning a Trishal-like prison van ambush to snatch the inmates accused in the Holy Artisan café attack case. On February 23, 2014, JMB militants took away three of their comrades at Trishal Upazila as they were being transported in a prison van from Kashimpur jail to a court in Mymensingh District. Read less...

Detective Branch (south division) of Police arrested ‘patron’ of Jama'atul Muslimeen, Rizwan Haroon, from Dhanmondi area of the City on January 20, reports Daily Star. The suspect is also the former owner of Lakehead Grammar School. A press release issued by Dhaka Metropolitan Police stated that the Government had blacklisted Jama'atul Muslimeen soon after its activities came to the notice of law enforcers in 2005. Jama'atul Muslimeen is the first organisation in Bangladesh that followed the ideology of Al-Qaeda, the press release said. Dhaka Tribune adds that Jama'atul Muslimeen created a network in English medium schools to build up a reservoir of potential recruits. Rizwan purchased the school in 2006. According to the Police, Rizwan Haroon sold the Lakehead Grammar School to Khaled Hasan Motin, another suspected militant in 2017 and went into hiding. Read less...

A Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court on January 22 directed Counter Terrorism & Transnational Crime (CTTC) Unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police to submit by February 18 the probe report of the case filed over the murders of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) magazine editor Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Mahbub Rabby Tonoy in 2016, reports Daily Star. The investigating agency has so far taken 20 dates for submitting the probe report to the court. Xulhaz Mannan and Mahbub Rabby Tonoy were killed by suspected Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) militants. Read less...

Asadullah, a militant of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), on January 24, confessed his involvement in the murders of United States Agency for Agency for International Development (USAID) staffer and Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) activist Xulhaz Mannan, and his friend in 2016, reports Daily Star. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mainul Islam recorded the confessional statement of Asadullah for over three hours at his chamber. Read less...

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB-14) arrested four militants of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Siam Al Mahmud, (19), Nasreen Akhteralias Joaira, (21), Md Shaheen Islam alias Mahbub Islam, (22) and Md Shakhawat Karim, (36), from Biddyaganj Railway Station in Mymensingh Sadar upazila. RAB recovered seven jihadi books from their possession. Read less...

The arrested JMB militant Shariful Islam alias Khaled, sent Bangladeshi Taka worth 39 milion to JMB leader Sarwar Jahan to fund the café attack, reports Daily Star on January 27. “The money came from the Middle East,” Mufti Mahmud Khan, Director (legal and media) of RAB, said at a press briefing at the RAB Media Centre in Dhaka on January 26. Read less...

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) detained five suspected members of an international drug smuggling gang from the Kaula area of the capital city on January 28, reports Daily Star. The detainees were identified as Fatema Imam Tania (26), Afsana Mimi (23), Salma Sultana (26), Sheikh Mohammad Badhon alias Parvez (28) and Ruhul Amin alias Saimon (29). Yaba pills (a stimulant comprising a mix of methamphetamine and caffeine), Foreign Currencies and passports were seized from them. “The gang operated in multiple countries and has networks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Malaysia and Sri Lanka,” Mufti Mahmud Khan, RAB's Legal and Media Wing Director, stated on January 29. The five arrested are linked to a massive haul of drugs in Sri Lanka on December 31, 2018, when Sri Lankan Police seized 272 kilograms of heroin and five kilograms of cocaine during a special operation at a housing complex in Templers Road at Mount Lavinia suburb in the capital city of Colombo. Read less...