A British citizen of Bangladeshi origin, who fought against the Assad government in Syria, was nabbed by police on Monday, six months after he flew in here allegedly to recruit jihadists for Syrian militant groups.
Samiun Rahman alias Ibn Hamdan was arrested on suspicion that he is close to the militant groups Islamic State (IS) and al-Nusra Front.
At a press conference, Joint Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Monirul Islam said the accused was arrested following information collected from some people arrested recently over alleged links with Islamist militants.
Recruiting jihadistsThe British citizen came to Dhaka in February this year to recruit jihadists from Bangladesh and Myanmar, the senior police officer quoted him as saying. He used social networking websites including Facebook to communicate with the people.
“From his passport we came to know that he went to Syria in September last year and took part in the demonstration against Bashar Al-Assad,” the police spokesman said, adding he also went to Morocco and Mauritania.
A day before the arrest, a Detective Branch (DB) team arrested Asif Adnan (26) and Fazle Elahi Tanzil (24), who had allegedly been planning to go to Syria through Turkey with the help of a U.K. citizen.
On September 22, detectives arrested five suspected militants, who were planning to leave for Syria to join IS.
