The Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU), a specialized branch of the police, has arrested a member of the banned militant group Ansar al-Islam for allegedly conducting “extremist propaganda” online.
Naeem Ali Naeem bin Saad Mujahid Al-Hind, a 19-year-old man, was arrested from Kalabagan in the capital on Wednesday night, said ATU Assistant Superintendent of Police Wahida Parveen.
She said the house of the arrested youth was in Ailchara itself in Kushtia’s Mirpur. In Dhaka, he lived in the Dhanmondi area.
Police say Naeem was recruiting members online for Ansar al-Islam. Besides, using ‘fake ID’ through social media, he was coming up with various posts of ‘anti-state and anti-government, religious provocative and extremist’.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Wahida said, “He has been conducting various activities for a long time to establish a caliphate in Bangladesh through anti-state conspiracies in online extremist propaganda.”
At the time of his arrest, ATU had seized 35 extremist books and a mobile phone from Naeem.
A case under anti-terrorism law has been filed against him at Kalabagan police station.