Govt backed Naogaon operations in 2004
Claims JMB militant
Hemayet Uddin Himu, leader of banned JMB, is brought before journalists at a press conference at Rab-5 headquarters in Rajshahi city following his arrest yesterday. Photo: STAR
Hemayet Uddin Himu, arrested leader of outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), yesterday said the militant outfit carried out its activities in Naogaon in 2004 with the backing of government. Himu disclosed this at a press conference at Rab-5 headquarters in Rajshahi city. He said police and government officials used to accompany Bangla Bhai's armed gang while it conducted criminal activities such as murder, torture and extortion. The 39-year-old JMB man said Bangla Bhai and his cadres used government vehicles at their will while kidnapping people from their houses, in taking them to torture camps or sending the bodies to hospitals or police camps. Quoting witnesses and their intelligence reports, Rab officials said Himu was a close aide to the executed JMB leader Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai. He was active in Raninagar, Atrai and Sadar upazilas of Naogaon as the regional commander of JMB. “I am a farmer. The outlaws were extorting me and capturing my lands... I was not getting justice anywhere until 2004. When Bangla Bhai appeared on the scene and sought our help to resist the outlaws, I extended support to him," said Himu. “I helped Bangla Bhai identify the outlaws and Bangla bhai later killed and tortured them at JMB torture camps.” Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab)-5 arrested Hemayet Uddin Himu, raided his house at Atgram village in Atrai upazila of Naogaon district at around 3:00am yesterday. The Rab officials said Himu used to work for outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) before joining JMB in 2004. They said Himu and 35 other JMB men kidnapped Sheikh Farid, a retired army man on April 26 of 2004, branding him as a leader of outlaws. They took him to Bhabanipur High School ground and beat him up. Farid succumbed to his injuries at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital on May 1. Police later pressed charges against 32 people including Himu in the murder case. Himu is also a charge-sheeted accused in Idris Ali Khejur murder case. Police exhumed Khejur's body from near Bheti Madrasa torture camp in Naogaon on May 28, 2004. At least 22 people were killed and several hundred others maimed by JMB in Rajshahi, Natore and Naogaon districts in a couple of months in 2004.
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