Executed Huji leader Mufti Hannan’s brother arrested

Executed Harkatul-Jihad Al Islami (Huji) chief, Mufti Abdul Hannan’s brother Munishi Iqbal Ahmed was arrested in Savar, on the outskirt of the capital Dhaka, on Friday.

Munishi Iqbal Ahmed, 62, is one of the organisers of the banned militant outfit, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) claimed on Saturday.

The arrestee, during primary interrogation, has confessed that he was a leader of the Huji, Mozammel Haque, company commander of RAB-4, told reporters at a press conference at his office this afternoon.

Iqbal was working as an organiser to strengthen organisational activities and strategies of Ansar al-Islam, Haque said quoting Iqbal as saying.

Former British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Anwar Choudhuri came under a grenade attack while visiting Hazrat Shah Jalal Shrine in Sylhet on May 21, 2004. And the Huji has been blamed for the attack.

Since then, the law enforcement agencies have intensified vigilance on the banned organisation Huji. To avoid action, the religious-based militant outfit merged with the Ansar al-Islam, the police official said.

Mufti Abdul Hannan, one of the country’s most dreaded militants, and was involved in plotting and carrying out all terror attacks in Bangladesh.

The Huji chief was responsible for killing more than a hundred people in 13 militant attacks that took place in different parts of the country between 1999 and 2005.

Hannan was sentenced to death by hanging for multiple crimes and executed on 12 April 2017.