Investigators believe the group aims to establish a caliphate in Bangladesh.
At least 12 of the 23 militants who were detained from inside a mosque in Dhaka on Friday could be members of a new group named “Ittehadul Ummah”, Bangladesh Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said at a press briefing.
Detainees’ telephones had been forensically examined and the suspects had been interrogated after being taken to a nearby police station.
They wanted to organise themselves for extremist activities aimed at establishing a caliphate, Bangladesh daily Prothom Alo reported. The incident raises concerns over radical groups with extremist goals within Bangladesh. Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in an exclusive interview with NDTV, described terrorism and extremism as a grave threat, warning against Bangladesh becoming a safe haven for extremist networks. She called for stronger intelligence and law enforcement, while arguing that terrorism should be addressed as a regional challenge requiring greater South Asian cooperation and economic integration. “They were detained based on intelligence information.
Because intelligence agencies had information about such activities, they were detained. When asked about the detention of 23 people on suspicion of links to an extremist organisation from the mosque at Tejgaon College last Friday, Minister Ahmed said, “Some people were talking even after prayers had ended. Police said they received information that a group of around 25-30 people, allegedly led by a man named Shihab Uddin, was holding a meeting on the second floor of the mosque, the state-run news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sanstha (BSS) reported.
The forensic reports from the phones of the remaining detainees and information obtained during questioning indicated that they had sought to form an organisation called “Ittehadul Ummah”, he said. The home minister said the government has maintained a zero-tolerance policy towards extremism and that the suspects are being questioned about their motives by the police. Verification and screening of their identities and backgrounds are underway,” Tejgaon Division Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Ibn-e-Mizan said.
