Suspected IS member held in city

FE Team | Published: September 27, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Plainclothes police arrested a suspected member of Islamic State (IS) from Purana Paltan in the city Thursday night for his alleged efforts to spread activities of the militant group, reports UNB.
The arrestee was identified as Hafizur Rahman(22).
Tipped off that a suspected IS member had been spreading its activities in the country, a special team of the Detective Branch of police led by AC Md Jahangir Alam conducted a drive in Purana Paltan area and arrested Hafizur from in front of the Surma Tower at about 8:30 pm.
Islamic State is a Middle East-based radical Islamist group that has seized large swathes of territory in eastern Syria and across northern and western Iraq.
Briefing reporters at the media centre of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) on Friday, Joint Commissioner (DB) Monirul Islam said arrested Hafizur Rahman confessed to the police that he was an organiser of IS in Bangladesh and he was trying to gather followers to join ISIS (Islamic State Iraq and Syria).
He reportedly revealed that he was involved in the activities of banned Islamic outfit JMB.
"But we didn't find any direct link of Hafizur Rahman with central command of the IS. However, we found that he had connection with some people in neighbouring countries," Joint Commissioner Monir said.
"Our CTTU (Counter Terrorism and Trans national Crime Unit found that Hafizur Rahman had been maintaining a page: is Bangladesh," Monir said adding that they identified him tracking his web link.
Replying to a question, the Joint Commissioner (DB) categorically said they had no specific information about any Bangladeshi joining the IS or are participating in armed fighting. "But, we have information about some expatriates who are of Bangladeshi origin fighting for the IS," he said.
He also said detectives have been looking for an expatriate, who recently arrived in Bangladesh and involved in collecting people who want to join the IS.
Earlier on Wednesday, two youths-one son of a retired judge and another of a serving joint secretary-were held from the city on charge of trying to go to Syria to receive training under Syria -based al-Nusra Front, also known as al-Nusra brigade.
The Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested the youths-as Asif Adnan, 26, and Fazle Elahi Tanzil, 24, -- from Segunbagicha and Eskaton areas on Wednesday night. Both are members of Islamist militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team.