Retired Brigadier General Abdullahil Amaan Azmi, the son of top war criminal and former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Ghulam Azam, is working to establish the Islamic Revolutionary Army (IRA) by destroying the Bangladesh Army and the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), sources say.
Azmi, who appeared in the scene on August 7 last year after eight years, is secretly preparing suicide squads with Ansar al-Islam jihadists to stage coordinated attacks in India as part of a blueprint made by the Pakistani elements.
Intelligence sources say that Azmi is recruiting Rohingya refugees and stranded Pakistanis for training under the third mission.
Azmi is closely collaborating with some pro-Pakistani retired and sacked army officers to carry out the plans. In addition, the Pakistani ISI officials are regularly visiting Bangladesh, as it has already established an office in Dhaka’s Mohakhali DOHS area.
The former Awami League government banned Jamaat due to its covert terrorist activities as well as for masterminding the July-August riots to unseat the government, under the guise of a student-led uprising against the quota system in public service.
In many countries, the Jamaat is banned since it is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. This radical Islamist party is also affiliated with CAIR, or the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group funded by Jamaat.
Through these channels, Azmi has gained influence in the army to implement the plans of the Pakistani Army and ISI.
Latest, a ship carrying weapons and explosives arrived directly from Karachi port during the last week of July. This consignment was secretly offloaded under the direct supervision of the Bangladesh Army and later transported to the Ramu area of Cox’s Bazar. It is believed that this is one of the consignments sent by the United States for the Arakan Army in collaboration with the ISI.
According to a source, Pakistani Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir is currently visiting the United States, accompanied by several key figures. During this trip, they will hold meetings with several key officials of the US Army to finalize details of the coordination centring the Arakan Corridor.
The Yunus regime, through its National Security Advisor Khalilur Rahman, has already given a green signal to Washington regarding its readiness to coordinate the Arakan Corridor plan and strengthen the Arakan Army for taking over Myanmar and “liberating” it from Chinese influence.
Mission 1: IRI
One of the aides of Azmi is Brigadier General (Retd) Mohammad Hassan Nasir, who was declared persona non grata in the Bangladesh Army recently.
Sources say Azmi and Nasir are trying to create chaos in the army. Through these actions, they aim to destroy the army and the DGFI while establishing the IRI under Nasir’s leadership.
Apart from Jamaat-Shibir and AB Party, some leaders of the National Citizen Party (NCP) are part of this master plan, which began soon after the fall of the Awami League government last August.
The top army officials of Bangladesh and Pakistan also made courtesy visits to both countries to implement this sinister plan.
Second mission
Azmi is openly sheltering Major (expelled) Syed Ziaul Haque in various ways, as the latter returned to Bangladesh last December with a Pakistani passport after being in hiding since 2011.
Zia, who professes an Islamic army, is the son-in-law of the governmentโs commission for investigating the incidents of enforced disappearance.
A top leader of al-Qaedaโs South Asia wing, Ansar al-Islam, Zia and Azmi are working together to provide commando training to the jihadists as suicide squad members. This group will work inside India and carry out sabotage, the intelligence sources say.
In December, Zia applied to the government for withdrawal of the seven cases against him, in which he was sentenced to death in three, while four cases are under trial. Through his lawyer, the jihadist leader also applied for cancellation of the Tk20 lakh bounty declared on him by the Police Headquarters, according to The Daily Star.
On the other hand, through a self-styled investigative reporter affiliated with Al Jazeera, Zulkarnain Saer Khan Sami, Zia pleaded to the State Department to withdraw the $5 million reward for information on him and Akram Hossain, two fugitives who were given death sentences for the terrorist attack on two AmericansโAvijit Roy and his wife, Rafida Bonya Ahmedโon February 26, 2015.
Sources say Sami is paid a handsome amount of money from the DGFI every month at the blessing of Mohammad Faizur Rahman, who was made DG of DGFI after the changeover because of his family connections to the Jamaat. Faizur was later promoted to Leuitanant General and made Quarter Master General (QMG).
Moreover, Lt Gen Kamrul Hasan, the Principal Staff Officer to the Chief Adviser, visited Pakistan a number of times and held secret meetings with many Pakistani officials, including the Pakistan Army Chief Syed Asim Munir and ISI chief Lt Gen Asim Malik, with the aim of reconnecting the East Pakistan front.
In May, he sat with the Pakistan High Commissioner, Syed Ahmed Maroof, and US Charge d’Affaires in Dhaka, Tracey Ann Jacobson, to oust Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman.
Pakistan Army officers land in Dhaka, will sit with Arakan Army
Understanding the YunusโPakistan nexus
Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) claimed responsibility for the machete attack that killed Avijit, a scientist and secularist writer. Although Bonya narrowly avoided death, she sustained severe injuries. The US government designated the AQIS as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist group in 2016.
Zia also asked the army chief, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, to reinstate him and award him the gallantry award โBir Uttamโ for his role in the coup attempts in 2011 and 2024.
Intelligence sources say Azmi is helping Zia obtain a clean chit by putting pressure on the army chief, DGFI officials, and the Jamaat-backed Yunus regime. In the past year, the interim government released many top jihadists, including Ansar al-Islam cleric Jasimuddin Rahmani, while several hundred militants went into hiding after jailbreaks during the July-August riots.
Earlier this week, Zia asked the Yunus regime to allow offices for the rebels of Manipur, Khalistan, and Kashmir in Dhaka, after BBC Bangla reported that the Awami League maintains an office in Indiaโa claim rejected by the party.
Zia also warned West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that the Awami League leaders and activists currently staying in India may forge a tie with the BJP.
Mission 3
As part of the third mission, Azmi has got ISI agent Lt Col Hasinur Rahman as his second-in-command to recruit Rohingya refugees staying in Coxโs Bazar camps and the stranded Pakistanis in Dhaka and elsewhere and give them jihadist training, the sources say.
Hasinur served jail terms for several years during the Awami League tenure on sedition charges and the Anti-Terrorism Act.
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For this mission, Azmi is being assisted by the Pakistani High Commissioner, Syed Ahmed Maroof, who travelled to Coxโs Bazar several times to sit with the top leaders of militant groups Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), Islami Mahaz, and Arakan National Defence Force (ANDF) in December, February, and May.
Who is Azmi?
War criminal Ghulam Azam’s son Azmi was commissioned with the 5th BMA long-term course. He joined the Bangladesh Army in 1981, but his father was not a citizen of Bangladesh at that time. The former Jamaat chief regained his citizenship in 1994.
Since Azmi was also not a citizen of Bangladesh, his status created a stir in the Bangladesh Military Academy at that time. As per the law, no one who is not a citizen of Bangladesh can join the army. Hence, his military training was illegal.
Later, Ghulam Azam met with the then-military dictator and pro-Pakistani General Hussain Muhammad Ershad, securing his approval to save his son’s job.
Azmi never recognized Bangladesh. He has said this in front of the media several times with bravery: that he does not accept the Constitution, national anthem, and national flag of Bangladesh.
He does not accept Bengali culture. In 2014, 2015, and 2016, he wrote many times against the celebration of Pohela Baishakh, the first day of the Bangla calendar.
He wrote about the 1971 Liberation War with extreme hatred, questioning the number of martyrs and making false claims regarding the rape and murder of women.
The matter of being kidnapped by plainclothes law enforcers in 2016 and his days of solitary confinement are also unrealistic. His tale of using a single towel for eight years in confinement and its fresh condition after reappearance aroused laughter.
According to intelligence sources, Azmi went to Pakistan in 2016, and after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government, he returned to the country on August 7. Then he filed a case against all the former DGs of DGFI and all the former heads of the Counterterrorism Bureau.
At a press conference on September 3 last year, he said that not 3 million, but 300,000 people were martyred in the Liberation War. In addition, he faced public anger by distorting the history of the war.
Like his father, Azmi is also anti-India. At the press conference that day, Azmi said that the national anthem of Bangladesh should be rewritten since it was written by an Indian, Rabindranath Tagore.
At a seminar on April 24 this year, he said that India helped the Bangalis in the War of Independence in 1971 for its interests. โIndia wanted to free us from the slavery of Pakistan and make us their slaves. That is why they had been supporting Sheikh Hasina’s government for years,โ he said.
This is a developing story.
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