Having failed to keep their activities and identities secret in urban areas, militants are now taking shelter in remote and isolated char areas and far-flung frontier villages, where they are operating in the guise of other professions. Of late, a number of terrorist dens have been busted by law enforcement agencies in remote areas of the northern districts, including in Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj. Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officials in Rajshahi said vigilance is being stepped up in remote and inaccessible regions to find out if terrorists are mingling with locals. Civil society members said public relations and interactions should be strengthened in these areas, besides security surveillance.

A satellite image derived from Google shows how a remote and isolated cowshed in Char Alatuli village had been chosen as their shelter by militants.  They had convinced Rashikul, the owner of the cowshed, that they were ornithologists and wanted to do a survey of migratory birds of the char area and take photographs.

To win the confidence of Rashikul and neighbours, the militants in disguise visited some distant char areas on the Padma with cameras and shot some photographs of birds.

But under the guise of ornithologists and bird photographers, they used the cowshed for planning sabotage and terrorist activities in the district.

Other militant dens busted by law enforcement agencies in Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj districts were also situated in remote, isolated villages as well as in char areas on dried river beds.

RAB director (media wing) Mufti Mahmud Khan said that JMB militants are now hiding with false identities in remote rural areas by convincing people that they needed to stay in those places for professional or business purposes.

 “The RAB and other law enforcement agency members have already started operations to detect and nab these militants,” he added.

In a recent clash between militants and law enforcement members in Maschmara-Habashpur village under Matikata union of Godagari on May 11, it was found that the militants used to live in an isolated house owned by Sajjad Hossain, a hawker, by identifying themselves as garments

sellers.  In an earlier operation conducted on June 12 at an isolated house in Dangapara village of Pachandar union of Tanore upazila, it was found that the militants convinced the owner of the house that they worked with fertilisers and offered homeopathic treatment to people.

Law enforcement agency members recovered suicide vests and the deadly explosive Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP) from the possession of those militants.

On April 26, law enforcement agency members raided a remote house inside a mango grove in Trimohini, a village near the Sona Masjid frontier under Mobarakpur union of Chapainawabganj district, where all four militants blew themselves up with bombs.  Those militants were staying there by identifying themselves as spice traders.

Prof Maloy Bhowmik, a teacher of Rajshahi University, told this correspondent that the recent trend of JMB militant activities is mainly concentrated in remote rural areas.

They are taking shelter in isolated villages by convincing simple rural folks of being engaged in various professions. Such criminal activities could be curbed by strengthening public relations, involving locals in various activities and increasing mass awareness in rural areas, he added.