Bangladesh frees ABT chief Jashimuddin Rahmani, a vocal supporter of Al Qaeda. Should India be worried?

Bangladesh has released Jashimuddin Rahmani, the chief of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a terror outfit affiliated with Al Qaeda.

Rahmani was convicted for abetting the killing of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider in 2013.

The ABT is a homegrown extremist group which is behind the killings of several bloggers, writers and gay rights activists in Bangladesh.

But who is Rahmani?  Should India be worried?

Let’s take a closer look:

What do we know about Rahmani?

Rahmani is the so-called spiritual guru of the ABT.

As per The Print, the ABT’s earliest members drew inspiration from Al Qaeda’s Anwar al-Awlaki.

al-Awlaki, an Islamist preacher, was killed in Yemen in 2010.

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The outfit in 2012 began a recruiting push – mainly youths.

Its members were said to be more tech savvy and used technology to push their ideology and train members how to commit terror attacks.

Rahmani is an outspoken supporter of Al-Qaeda and its offshoot Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).

Rahmani, until his release this week, had been lodged in the Gazipur’s Kashimpur High Security Central Jail since 2013.

Rahmani in 2015 was convicted for abetting the murder of Haider.

He has been accused of inciting terrorism through his sermons.

Haider, 35, was hacked to death near his home in Dhaka in 2013, days after he helped in launching a campaign against Islamist leaders accused of committing crimes against humanity by siding with Pakistani troops during the country’s 1971 liberation war.

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Police had charged Rahmani and seven students from North South University, as per the Daily Star.

The students had vowed to kill “atheist bloggers” after reading Rahmani’s books and listening to his sermons, the investigation officer said on the charge sheet.

According to The Print, Rehmani in his Friday sermons would claim it is ‘legal’ to kill atheists or those against Islam and Prophet Mohammed.

Rahmani and the students had pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after Judge Ruhul Amin of the Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court read out the charges to them.

Rahmani was given a five-year jail term.

He was also behind bars pending trials in five other cases linked to terrorism, as per the outlet.

This included the July 1, 2016, attack on a Dhaka cafe which left 22 people dead including an Indian girl.

However, as per Dhaka Tribune, Rahmani has been granted bail in one case, while all the other cases against him have been withdrawn.

Rahmani’s books were easily accessible on the internet until some years ago.

As per The Print, the ABT under Rahmani had claimed credit for the murders of several bloggers and writers  between 2013 and 2016 including Avijit Roy, Oyasiqur Rahman Babu, Ananta Bijoy Das, and AKM Shafiul Islam, a professor of Rajshahi University.

The ABT was banned in 2016 by the then Sheikh Hasina government terrorist and anti-state activities.

As per India Today, the party attempted to reform under the new name Ansar al-Islam.

However, it was banned again in 2017.

Akayed Ullah,  the Bangladeshi-origin New York City bomber, was said to be inspired by Rahmani.

Ullah’s wife told investigators that Ullah used to “encourage” her to read books by the convicted Islamist outfit chief and that he appeared to have been radicalised over the internet after moving to the United States.

“She said he used to tell her to read the books of Rahmani to learn about religion or Islam. We are reviewing the information provided by his wife and other relatives,” a police officer said.

Should India be worried?

Experts say New Delhi should be concerned.

As per India Today, the ABT has been attempting to form a jihadi network in India.

India has also arrested a number of ABT terrorists.

In May, the Assam Police arrested Bahar Mia and Rarely Mia – two terrorists with links to the ABT – at Guwahati railway station.

Sources told the outlet that the ABT had linked up with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to carry out terror attacks in India’s North East.

The Pakistan-based terror group’s collaboration with the ABT goes back to 2022 when they established a base in Bengal with the aim of launching attacks in India, sources added.

The outlet quoted intelligence inputs from 2022 as saying that around 50 to 100 ABT cadres were planning to infiltrate Tripura.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has claimed that ABT members are using highly encrypted devices to evade authorities.

With inputs from agencies