We have snapped Islamist-ultra Left nexus: Dhaka

DHAKA - The Bangladesh government has said it has snapped a developing nexus between the Islamists and ultra-Left militants that could have led to an exchange of arms.

Officials of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the elite para-military force fighting militancy, say they have identified and broken a link between Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and leftist group Gono Bahini.

Both are banned outfits and officials say they sought to link up.

“The JMB contacted an outlawed group for firearms but failed as we detected and dismantled the link,” RAB director (intelligence wing) Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan told The Daily Star newspaper.

While ultra-Left groups have been operating since the British era, Islamist groups have been active since early 1990s after being set up by those who returned home after the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan.

Many of the Islamist groups, including the JMB and Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI), have been proscribed.

JMB mainly used bombs and improvised grenades and they approached the Gono Bahini for supplies.

RAB sources say JMB, weakened after the execution of its six top leaders in 2007 and arrest of other leaders and operatives, is now trying to establish links with other banned outfits.

The sources claim to have information that JMB governing council member Sohel Mahfuz, who hails from Kushtia on the western border with India, sought firearms several times from top Gono Bahini leader Ashraful Islam alias Mandar about a month ago.

Mandar was eventually spotted and killed in a shootout with RAB members in Kushtia April 7.