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Huji first to use hills

It set up training camps in early 1990s, ran those till crackdown after Aug 17 serial blasts in 2005

Julfikar Au Manik wShariful Islam
Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (Huji) was the first militant group to use the remote hill areas in Chittagong for arms training.
it set up training camps in the hill tracts in the early 90s and packed up when the law enforcers began cracking down on the militants after the August 17 serial blasts in 2005.
Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, which used to have training facilities mainly in plains, however moved to hill forests.
Militant camps in the hill tracts have come to the fore with the recent discovery of a JMB training camp in Khagrachhari.
Speaking about the origin of militant training in the country, Huji insiders say
when their organisation started recruitment in the late 80s, it concentrated its activities at madrasas in Chittagong region.
It began training the recruits how to operate firearms and explosives In some makeshift camps in remote hill areas between 1989 and 1990.
Its job became easier after Rohingya insurgents entered Bangladesh in 1991.
"At first, we had to use dummy firearms. But it all changed when Rohingya insurgents came in with sophisticated firearms," said a source who had training from the outfit.
When the Rohingyas took refuge in Bangladesh in 1991, insurgents slipped in with them and built training camps in the hill forests the Huji had already been
using.
Huji provided them with shelter, foods and manpower and in retun. got access to firearms and explosives.
As their relations grew stronger, many madrasa students involved in Huji went to Myanmar to fight for 'he Rohingya insurgents. Several of them were even killed.
Foreign militant leaders and officials of Islamic NGOs who provided funds for militancy campaign to lake root in Bangladesh visited the camps posing as Islamic scholars. They delixered motivational speeches on jihad.
Both Huji and the Rohingya militants used madrasas and mosques in Cox's Bazar, Teknaf, Ukhia and other areas in 15
Dhaka Friday October 2,2009 , M
Chittagong division as a cover for militant activities.
Huji operatives and Rohingyas had similar looks and dialects and it helped them a lot.
Throughout the first half of the 90s, law enforcement agencies either ignored their activities or encouraged those thinking the militants might help them deal with the local insurgents, said the sources.
Apart from the hill areas, the militants set up camps in deep forests of Fatikchhari, Putia, Hathazari, Raozan, Rangunia and Satkania in Chittagong.
In 2004, police happened to bust two militant camps in Hathazari and Rangunia upazilas.
The Hathazari camp was set up just two months before the raid. By the time jt was closed it was used to train over 60 youths in arms operation.
Apart from hill tracts in Chittagong, the Huji also set up some training camps in Sylhet region and remote rural areas in northern districts, said a source who had worked
as a trainer for the militant group.
After Huji had their camps dismantled in 2005, its trainers moved to places across the country to remain beyond the police dragnet.
They began working as teachers, imams and muazzins at madrasas and
.mosques.
The Huji had mainly used government lands to build training camps at that time.
The statements of the JMB operatives arrested during the Rapid Action Battalion's raid on Khagrachhari camp however point to a shift in that trend.
They said they had set up the camp at Khagrachhari on a four-acre land JMB purchased in the name of farming.
Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, Rab's Additional Director General Col Mizanur Rahman Khan said. "We have long been keeping a close watch on the hUl tracts. Now we are focusing on forest areas in Chittagong, Sylhet and Panchagarh too to find out if militants have any camps there."