[Dhaka Tribune] Law enforcement agencies are yet to track down four notorious trainers of the new iteration of Jama’at ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (New JMB) suicide squad.
The four trainers, identified as Samshu, Rashed, Safiq and Salma, the only woman among them, are on the run.
Evidence suggest of their direct contacts with holy warriors killed during counter-terrorism operations at Atia Mahal hideout in Sylhet and Nasirpur and Borohat hideouts in Moulvibazar.
Police first learned about the four from confessional statements of a Lion of Islam couple, who were jugged
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
in Chittagong’s Sitakunda on March 15.
In their statements, the couple ‐ Jahirul Haq alias Jasim and his wife Arjina alias Rajia ‐ claimed that they had joined New JMB for financial reasons.
They said the four leaders trained them and another couple for a month. They identified the other couple as Kamal and his wife Jobaida, who reportedly blew herself up at their Sitakunda residence during operation "Assault 16" in March this year.
The couple said they were ordered by their trainers to blow up their boom jackets to avoid capture.
In his confessional statement on April 28, Jasim, a native of Bandarban, said: "I was unable to support my family by cultivating betel leaf. I was introduced to militancy by a Rubber plantation worker named Sohel Rana about a year and a half ago."
Law enforcers found that Sohel, who posed as a plantation worker, was in fact a trainer of the New JMB suicide squad and a bomb-making expert.
Sohel went kaboom! , along with his wife and five kids, during "Operation Hit Back" in Moulvibazar on March 30.
Jasim said Sohel had indoctrinated him, his friend Hasan and his brother-in-law Kamal. "Withing the next year, Sohel, Kamal and Hasan left the village.
"Sohel lured me to Patiya Upazila at the beginning of this year, by assuring me that I could live with him at his rented house free of charge. I also accepted a proposal from him to marry off my sister Marjina to his brother Fahim, who was also living there."
He added: "I came into contact with many New JMB members, including the four trainers ‐ Samshu, Rashed, Safiq and Salma. They trained us for a month. Then Sohel instructed me to take my family to Sitakunda and settle there.
"Sohel regularly visited us. He told us to choose suicide over surrender if the law enforcers manage to sniff us out."
He continued: "When police finally surrounded us, my wife attempted to detonate the boom jacket, but I stopped her. The law enforcers then arrested me and my wife."
Police managed to track down Lion of Islam hideouts in Sylhet’s Atia Mahal, Moulvibazar’s Nasirpur and Borohat areas after interrogating Jasim and his wife.
On the other hand, a Lion of Islam named Elias aka Mahbub, who allegedly murdered a shrine priest in Noakhali on August 16, had also reportedly told police that he received training from the four trainers.
During interrogation, Elias revealed the names of around 25 New JMB leaders.
The names of these four trainers had come up in statements of both Elias and Jasim, a police brass hat stationed at Noakhali said.
Meanwhile,
...back at the laboratory, Igor and Oleg were discussing what the quickest way might be to deal with the monster...
speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, Sitakunda cop shoppe Officer-in-Charge Iftekhar Uddin said: "Elias has connections with many important leaders of the New JMB, who are currently on the run.
"We will continue to interrogate him to collect more information on the terror group and its leaders." 
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