'Well-educated' women jihadists recruited by Bangladeshi terror groups pose serious threat

Even as the city of Dhaka struggles hard to get rid of the café attack trauma, jihadists field women as terrorists to carry out attacks on security forces. The Bangladesh police has arrested 11 women with links to Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) so far after the tragedy that struck the nation on 1 July this year. The development is seen as a serious threat to the neighbouring country that shares a border as long as 4,096 kilometres with India, as JMB has also trained the women recruitees to conduct terrorist attacks and to make bombs. Six bombs along with bomb-making materials were recovered from the four female terrorists arrested in the last month. [caption id=“attachment_2880730” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Lieutenant Colonel of Rapid Action Battalion Abul Kalam Azad told the media, “Women are now equally involved in jihad as men are. Information related to involvement of females in jihad has started pouring in after arrest of the women groups.” The police arrested another group of four women with alleged links with terrorist groups on 15 August. Attacks on Bangladesh security forces are apprehended as an arrested female militant Aklima Rahman confessed in police custody that during their training in JMB it was taught that Bangladesh Police and Rapid Action Battalions are groups of ‘kafirs’ as they have arrested jihadists and tortured them in jail. “Most of the female jihadis are well educated,” added Abul Kalam Azad. Three of the four alleged female jihadists arrested on 15 August were students of Manarat International University in Dhaka. Aklima Rehman being one of them, the other two are Mou and Sadija Parveen. A female doctor working as an intern in the Dhaka Medical College Hospital was also arrested on the same day. She was identified as Oishee by the Rapid Action Battalion. Apart from JMB, another banned militant group of Bangladesh namely Ansarullah Bangla Team and Hizb ut-Tahrir also wield woman wings. The 1 July attack on an upscale café in Dhaka claimed 22 lives.The carnage carried by educated youths was considered the bloodiest in the recent history of Bangladesh. JMB, which also has a chapter in India, was involved in a blast in Burdwan district in West Bengal in 2014 that happened while making bombs. It is suspected that most of the female cadres had arms training in West Bengal. The Bangladesh police arrested three women with alleged links to the Dhaka attacks for the first time on 8 July this year.