A suspected Indian militant operating in Bangladesh as commander of the India-based ‘Asif Reza Commando Force’ was arrested in Dhaka’s Gabtoli area yesterday.

Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police held Emdadullah alias Mahbub, who used several other names for misguiding people.

Deputy Commissioner (South) of DB Monirul Islam told a press briefing at the DB office that they arrested Emdadullah following statements from Maulana Mansur Ali and Maulana Obaidullah, two other Indian militant big shots arrested by the detectives in July this year. Obaidullah was nabbed from Babu Bazaar Bridge in old Dhaka on July 16 while suspected organizer of ‘Lasker-e-Taiyeba’ Maulana Mansur Ali, widely known as Maulana Habibullah, from Dakkhinkhan in the city on July 20 under a hunt launched in the wake of a reported resurgence in activities of Islamist outfits.

DC Monirul said, “Indian militant Emdadullah has been staying in Bangladesh since 2006 without passport.

Emdad revealed that earlier he had come to Bangladesh in 2005 and then he went to Pakistan with Bangladeshi passport, the DC DB said.

He further said the Indian militant took one-month military training at a Beluchistan hideout in Pakistan, where militant outfits such as Lasker-e-Taiyeba, Al-Queda and Taliban are active.

Emdad told police that he used to impart training to his cadres in operating all types of heavy and light weapons, including Chinese pistol, AK-47, SLR, Machinegun, rocket-launcher and sniper gun, according to Monirul.

He returned to India the same year and got involved in militant activities under Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF).

Emerging as a marginal group in December 2001 along the northwestern Bangladesh-India frontier, ARCF established nexus between organised crime and Islamist terrorism, sources said.

A resident of Padmapukur under North 24 Parganas in the Indian State of West Bengal, Emdadullah was arrested by Indian CID from Carbon Chemical Industry there. But he fled from Indian police custody in 2006.

Replying to a question, the DB official said, “Indian militants usually use Bangladesh as a hideout as well as a transit point to enter Pakistan and other neighbouring countries.”

Talking to reporters at the DB office, Emdad said arrested Maulana Mansur is his uncle. He was introduced to Maulana Obaidullah through his uncle (Maulana Mansur) in 2008.

Emdadullah had worked at Dhaka Tobacco Industry in Tongi and also at a garment factory in Gazipur. He denied his involvement in any act of militancy in Bangladesh.

Emdadullah, however, confessed to having received a monthly pay from Abdullah, a Pakistan-based militant leader of Laskar-e-Taiba, through Western Union a money transferring agency. It was stopped after his uncle Maulana Masur was arrested.