Author:
Publication: www.matamat.com
Date: June 2, 2004
URL: http://www.matamat.com/fullstory.php?gd=26&cd=2004-06-02
The Chittagong police in a predawn
swoop uncovered a clandestine training camp of what is stated to be a Muslim
militant outfit, and arrested two persons with some accessories used in
the training programmes inside a deep forest area of Mulatali hill under
Hathazari upazila on Tuesday.
The arrested are identified as Enamul
Haque, 45, of Chandrapur village in Hathazari upazila of Chittagong, and
Mohammad Iskandar, 40, of Jaljoliya village under Haluaghat upazila of
Mymensingh.
Tipped off, a contingent of 85 personnel,
drawn from the Hathazari, Raojan and Sitakunda police stations, and led
by additional superintendent of police Hasib Aziz, cordoned off the hilly
area behind the International Islamic University, Chittagong at Kumira
early Tuesday and found the undercover camp, nearly 10 kilometres off the
Hathazari police station.
The team, after four hours of search,
recovered 24 wooden dummies of gun, four spears, five pairs of boots, two
knives and two tents from the camouflaged cave located on the hill top.
The Police launched extensive search
there suspecting that the arms might have been hidden in the deep hilly
area, a top police official said.
"Now we are planning to go there
again with the arrested persons for delving further into the activities
of the clandestine camp," Superintendent of Police, Chittagong Mahbubur
Rahman said.
Enamul, one of the arrested, told
journalists at Hathajari police station that a madrassah teacher in Chittagong
had been administering the camp.
"I saw two batches of nearly 40
militants, mostly Madrasha students and teachers, imparting arms training
in the camp," Enamul who came to the camp two and a half months ago as
a cook narrated his experience.
The other arrested person, Iskander,
said that he was appointed in the camp as helper whose main duty was to
do shopping for the militants on a payment of Taka 80 per day.
They also said that madrasha students
from different parts of the country, particularly Mymensingh, Sylhet and
Tangail came to get training here.
They also informed that Salman,
Abdul and Meer Kashim were leaders of the militants.
"In the preliminary interrogation
we found that the arrested persons were laymen and they talked incoherently;
hence we decided to keep them away from the journalists," the police superintendent
said. "We are not in a position to say anything more as the matter is under
vigorous investigation."
The political affiliation of the
undertraining militants could not be ascertained immediately; different
intelligent agencies are keeping close watch on the incident. A case was
lodged with the Hathazari police station.
