Operatives of several groups used to visit Bangladesh from Pakistan and then India to commit their activities, while many from India also sneaked into Bangladesh and then visited Pakistan with fake Bangladeshi passports to have training on arms and explosives.
Pakistan-based militant groups like Laskar-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul Mujahideen, Jamiatul Mujahideen and Jehadul Islami are among 15 foreign terror groups who were active or are still operating in Bangladesh since 1991 using the country as a safe shelter or transit to infiltrate India.
Operatives of several groups used to visit Bangladesh from Pakistan and then India to commit their activities, while many from India also sneaked into Bangladesh and then visited Pakistan with fake Bangladeshi passports to have training on arms and explosives, the Daily Star reported today.
Referring to unidentified security and intelligence officials, the paper said Bangladesh was used mainly for transit to neighbouring countries, inlcuding India, till 2005.
It listed the organisations as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Tehrik-e-Jehad-e-Islami-Kashmiri, Harkat-ul Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Jehadul Islami, Hizbul Mujahideen, Hezbe Islami, Jamiatul Mujahideen, Harkatul Ansar, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
In addition, Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF), Myanmar-based militant groups Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) and National United Party of Arakan (NUPA) are also active.
The report said the militant organisations operated almost undisturbed from 1991 to 1998 and then between 2001 and
2005, the periods when ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party was in power with fundamentalist
Jamaat-e-Islami being its crucial ally.
Police and elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion confirmed the presence of the militant outfits saying the detained foreign operatives of these groups admitted that they were largely being patronised by Pakistani intelligence agencies and while they found HuJI as their local host.
But they added that with intensified anti-militant clampdown in recent periods, the foreign extremist operatives were now faced with a major setback.
"Now Bangladesh is no more a comfortable place for local or foreign militants as we constantly remain vigilant and go after militants upon instructions of the government," RAB chief Hassan Mahmud Khondkar said.
The report, however, said currently some militant groups were generating funds for their operations by selling counterfeit Indian currencies in India while the counterfeit Indian rupees and US dollars were mainly being forged in Pakistan and carried to Bangladesh via Dubai.
"We've detected at least three such gangs having around 50 members. One of the gangs is led by Bangladeshi citizen Majumder, one by Pakistani citizen Sarfaraz and the other by another Pakistani named Mohammad Danish," said a top police official asking not to be identified.
Detective policemen in the past four months arrested six suspected Pakistani militant operatives mostly belonging to Laskar-e-Taiba.
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