Bangladesh has written to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) seeking details of Samiun Rahman, a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin who was arrested by the Delhi police last month for allegedly trying to recruit Rohingya Muslims on behalf of the terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda.
As per a memorandum of understanding, the NIA and Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion regularly exchange inputs on cases of terrorism.
The U.K. High Commission was given consular access to him last week. “The U.K. High Commission sought consular access to him [Rahman]. India granted consular access and U.K officials have visited him,” a U.K. High Commission official told The Hindu .
Rahman used to work as a mini-cab controller in Central London. He was arrested by the Bangladesh police on September 29, 2014 in Dhaka for allegedly recruiting young men for Syrian militant groups such as the Islamic State and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front.
Rahman’s family had said he was picked up by the police when he visited Sylhet in Bangladesh to settle a family dispute.
Inconsistent narrative
A human rights advocacy group in the U.K., CAGE, campaigned for his release from the Dhaka prison. In a press release issued in September 2014, CAGE said there were inconsistencies in the narrative over Rahman’s arrest, including that he was both a member of the Al-Nusra Front and its rival Islamic State. Rahman was released from the Dhaka prison in April. It is not known how he entered India.
A government official said Rahman entered India illegally in July. A press release issued by the Delhi police said that in 2013, he was influenced by the ideology of Al-Qaeda and obtained training for three weeks at its camp in Syria and fought there for a year. The police claimed that Rahman was sent to Bangladesh to raise a fighter group and in 2014 visited Sylhet, Nabiganj and Dhaka in Bangladesh and other places to radicalise dozens of youths for their entry into Myanmar from Chittagong in Bangladesh.
He was arrested and, after a three-year imprisonment, released on bail in April. “In July 2017, he entered India with the objective of setting up a base in Mizoram and Manipur to fight for Rohingya,” the Delhi police said in a press statement.
