The Bangladesh authorities have arrested yet another Pakistani national suspected to be an organiser of the Pakistan-based banned outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Mobashwer Shahid Mubin alias Yahia, 25, got involved with the LeT in 1998 and came to Bangladesh in the guise of a businessman in 2006, a senior officer of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) told a press briefing.
Yahia was first held by an intelligence agency in Dhaka in December 2008 while he was on his way to Pakistan. Later he was handed over to the police who booked him in a currency counterfeit case. He came out of jail a couple of weeks ago after a four-month detention, but was under police surveillance.
Intelligence sources said the Pakistani national was recruiting local youths for the LeT and carrying funds for its activities in Bangladesh as assigned by top Lashkar leaders. He also used to look after the interests of different local and foreign militant organisations as an ISI agent, newspapers quoting intelligence sources reported.
“We are trying to determine how many people he recruited, his source of funding, network in Bangladesh and whether he maintained connection with other militant organisations in Bangladesh,” Commander Sohail of the RAB said.
Yahia's seized passport revealed that before his arrest he visited Pakistan 12 times and once he had entered Bangladesh via Dubai. Hailing from Karachi, Yahia is skilled in using various types of firearms.
On November 13 last year, three Pakistani nationals — Sayed Abdul Kaiyum Azhari Sufian, 22, Mohammad Ashraf Zahid, 24, and Mohammad Monwar Ali Monwar, 30, — were arrested in Dhaka and Gazipur as the police suspected their links to a plot to attack the U.S. embassy and the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
On October 1, an Indian citizen, Mohammad Emdadullah, was arrested in Dhaka for his suspected links to the LeT. On July 20, the detective branch arrested Moulana Mohammad Mansur Ali, an Indian national and suspected LeT operative, at a madrasa at Dakkhin Khan in the city.
‘The police arrested 10 to 15 suspected activists of the LeT in the last 18 months,” said Additional Deputy Commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Walid Hossain.
