District Detective Branch (DB) police have detained a suspected member of the Fatah Combat System (FCS) in a raid in the Kismat Nowapara area of Sadar upazila, Jashore. The detainee is Tahsin Islam, 19, police said, adding that a machete, several electronic devices and cables were recovered from his home.
He was detained in a raid on Thursday (July 9) night, police said. Tahsin is the son of Ohidul Islam of Kismat Nowapara.
Police said Tahsin faces a robbery case, and law-enforcement officials claimed that during initial questioning he admitted to being a member of the Fatah Combat System.
Jashore Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime) Mirajul Islam said Tahsin had been detained on the basis of a case filed with the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit in Dhaka, and that he was also the third accused in an earlier robbery case.
He said Tahsin had spoken during initial questioning of his involvement with the Fatah Combat System, though whether the group had any active network in Jashore was being verified. Tahsin would be handed over to the CTTC for the next stage of legal proceedings, he said.
Law-enforcement surveillance around the Fatah Combat System has been stepped up recently. The organisation, founded by Shah Amanat Sabir, faces allegations of drawing young people into extremist activity under the guise of martial-arts training.
Earlier, on July 5, six young men were detained in the Jatrabari area of the capital on charges of gathering to run the organisation’s activities. The CTTC claims the group’s network is spread across various parts of the country and that its investigation has found information linking them to extremists who had returned from Afghanistan.
Police also allege that, under the guise of a housing project funded by a foreign charity, the group was trying to recruit members for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and that the investigation has turned up information that it had moved to form a Tehrik-e-Taliban Bangladesh (TTB) modelled on the TTP.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report