Twenty-six Bangladeshis, who were arrested in Singapore earlier suspecting their involvement in terror groups, have been sent back home in batches in November and December last.There has been no case against them and they were the followers of Ahle Hadith and used to invite people to accept Islam as religion, a Foreign Ministry source told UNB on Wednesday.The source also said the work permits of the 26 Bangladeshis had been revoked by the Singaporean government on suspicion.The Foreign Ministry here is likely to receive a report from Bangladesh Mission in Singapore over the matter on Thursday. Meanwhile, the identity of another person among total 27 could not be known.However, Deputy Commissioner (Media) of DMP M Maruf Hossain Sarder told UNB that ‘27’ Bangladeshis were arrested on their return in Dhaka under the Terrorists Control Act and 14 of them are now in jail while 13 others released on undertakings.He said the detained 14 suspects will be placed on police remand for further interrogation while the released 13 are now under close surveillance.Quoting Bangladesh High Commissioner in Singapore Mahbub-uz-Zaman, BBC Bangla said the suspended Bangladeshis had long been under the watch of Singapore law enforcement agencies.The Singaporean government contacted Bangladesh government before sending them back to Bangladesh, he added.However, the Associated Press (AP) news agency and local media in Singapore reported on Wednesday they were arrested in Singapore earlier for their alleged support to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.
AP reported from Singapore that the workers were arrested in November and detained without trial under the city-state’s rigorous Internal Security Act there.According to the Straits Times, an English-language daily of Singapore, investigations showed that they supported the armed jihad ideology of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).Some of them had considered waging armed jihad overseas, but they were not planning any terrorist attacks in Singapore, said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in Singapore on Wednesday.The Bangladeshis, who were working in the construction industry there, were detained between November 16 and December 1 last year, the report said.All the 27 have had their work passes cancelled, and 26 of them have since been repatriated to Bangladesh, where the authorities were informed of the circumstances of their repatriation.In the course of their arrests, the Internal Security Department recovered a “significant amount” of radical and jihadi-related material, such as books and videos containing footage of children undergoing training in what appeared to be terrorist military camps.”They also carefully targeted the recruitment of other Bangladeshi nationals to grow their membership,” said the MHA in a statement.”Members were encouraged to return to Bangladesh and wage armed jihad against the Bangladeshi government. They had also sent monetary donations to entities believed to be linked to extremist groups in Bangladesh,” said MHA.Channel News Asia reported, quoting the ministry statement, that the group members took measures to avoid detection by the authorities.“They shared jihadi-related material discreetly among themselves, and held weekly meetings and gatherings where they discussed armed jihad and conflicts that involved Muslims,” said the ministry in its press release, which listed the names of all the 27.
source:UNB
