Bangladesh Arrests Briton over ’ISIL’ Recruitment

Local Editor

Bangladesh police said Monday they had arrested a British citizen suspected of entering the country to recruit militants for extremist groups overseas such as the ISIL extremist group.

Officers said Samiun Rahman, of Bangladeshi origin, was picked up from a railway station in the capital around midnight on Sunday, days after police arrested two suspected militants for attempting to set up an al-Qaeda network inside the country.

"During primary interrogation, he told police he was staying in Bangladesh to recruit extremists for the ISIL and Nusra brigade," Dhaka metropolitan police said in a statement.

"He further disclosed he took part in extremist activities in Syria between September and December 2013 by becoming a member of Nusra brigade," the statement said, adding that he had traveled to Syria with a friend from Britain.

Dhaka police spokesman Monirul Islam said Rahman, alias Ibn Hamdan, planned to send Bangladeshi militants to Syria, and also wanted to set up an al-Qaeda network inside Bangladesh and neighboring Myanmar.

The arrests come after al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri announced earlier this month plans to launch a South Asian branch of the militant network.

Also this month police arrested the suspected acting chief of another outlawed militant group, so-called "Jamayetul Mujahideen" Bangladesh [JMB], blamed for a series of explosions in August 2005.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team