Delhi-bound ‘militants’ held in Dhaka: immigration sources

DHAKA: A band of 24 young men were arrested at Zia International Airport as suspected militants when they were about to fly for Afghanistan through India, immigration sources said in Dhaka on Wednesday.

The suspects, all aged between 15-20 years and of Bangladeshi origin, were scheduled to board a private (GMG) airliner at 11am to fly for Kabul with stopovers at the Kolkata and New Delhi airports. Immigration Police told reporters that they were detained as they could not give satisfactory answers about their suspicious travel plans. Later, the arrested people were handed over to the airport police for further investigation.

“Since they were travelling to Afghanistan and they could not give any satisfactory answers about the purpose of their visit, we suspected they might have links with militant organizations. Otherwise, why they should be travelling to war-torn Kabul,” a police officer said.

The officer could name the militant outfit that the detained belonged to. “We’ll not call them militants, but we suspect them to be militants.” The Bangladesh government earlier had rounded up hundreds of militants of Jamaatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB) after serial bombings in the country’s 63 district headquarters on August 17, 2004 that left three people dead and scores wounded.

The banned outfit, JMB, later staged a series of blasts by their suicide squads killing lawyers and police in their bid to establish Islamic rule in Bangladesh.