Dhaka attack: Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion identifies 261 missing persons as suspected Jihadis

“I have come to Iraq. Tell father and mother not to worry about me. I have come here for jihad. I will never be back.” This message, that sent a chill down the spine of many readers, was sent by Najibullah Ansari, a Marine engineer who had been missing since January 2015. It was published in several local newspapers in Bangladesh, a nation still recovering from the trauma of the deadly Dhaka attack, that claimed the lives of 20 people. He is just one of the 261 missing Bangladeshi nationals, who, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) of the neighbouring country has identified as possible threats – those who could’ve joined  the  terrorist outfits like the Islamic State. The agency has released photos of 50 of them. [caption id=“attachment_2897758” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Relatives of victims mourn the Dhaka terror attack. AFP[/caption] Following massive search operations within the country, the security agency on Monday released the names of people who have been missing for a long period and are suspected to be involved in Jihadist activities. Local media outlets have come up with reports of dozens of doctors and engineers, like Ansari, of having gone missing and joining Jihadist groups in the Middle East. The security agency posted the names of the missing persons on its Facebook page. Mufti Mahmud Khan, the spokesperson to the RAB, said to the media, “We have to find them.” Benazir Ahmed, the Chief of RAB, called on the people to inform the law enforcing agencies if they have any information about the persons missing. He also appealed to the people to inform if any family has a missing member. “Their lives and the lives of many others can be saved if they are found,” he said. The RAB launched the operation to find out these missing persons after the Dhaka carnage, which was mostly carried out by men who had been missing for a long time before it. Though the Bangladesh government has been claiming that the attack was carried out by home-grown militant groups, and not by foreign Jihadist groups like the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, Najibullah’s last message indicates that those alien groups might have established strong links in Bangladesh through which they might be hiring and radicalising youths in Bangladesh. The RAB has also published CCTV footage that shows four persons, including a woman, suspiciously loitering in an intersection near the Holey Artisan bakery – where the deadly attack took place.