In the 1980s, groups of young men from Bangladesh fled to Afghanistan to join the jihad targeting the Soviet occupation forces.

Four decades later, now more young Bangladeshis are traveling the same road to religious extremism, according to the police.

Recently, three young men from Bangladesh left home for ‘hijrat’ or ‘hegira! -- migration for the cause of Islam -- and took to terrorism in Afghanistan, according to officials in the police’s Counterterrorism and Transnational Crime Unit.

The officials confirm that two of them -Abdur Razzak from Cumilla and Shibbir Ahmed from Sylhet  - have already reached Afghanistan, bdnews24.com reported.

Razzak, a driver, studied at a madrasa in Sylhet. His brother, Salman Khan, reported him missing at Sylhet Kotwali Police Station on March 25.

A youth from Noakhali district - Rabiul - has also reportedly left home to travel to Afghanistan, but the police are yet to confirm his whereabouts.

The Taliban have waged war in the landlocked country to overthrow the foreign-backed government since they were ousted from power in Kabul in 2001.

There is a likely connection between the new recruitments by militant organizations and the US withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, said Shafqat Munir, head of the Institute of Terrorism Research at Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Securities Studies.

US President Joe Biden has announced US troops stationed in Afghanistan would be withdrawn between May 1 and Sept 11.

“Afghanistan is going through a volatile situation with the foreign troops being withdrawn. The central government is in a tight spot. Such a situation is ominous for the entire region, not only Afghanistan,” said Munir.

Security agencies recently got to know of a Messenger chat group that served as a network for the distribution of extremist ideology and the planning of militant acts, CTTC chief Deputy Inspector General Md Asaduzzaman told the media.

There were 10 youths, including Razzak, Shibbir and Rabiul, in the chat group titled Science Project,

As far as authorities know, they did not use their passports to leave the country, according to Asaduzzaman.

Four other members of the Science Project group have been arrested.

During police questioning, the men said their accomplices had gone to Afghanistan “via Chattogram” and that an individual named ‘Abdullah’ from Sylhet had contacted them and told them to get their passports ready.

The group had planned a “large-scale incident” in Bangladesh before they would abscond to Afghanistan, DIG Asaduzzaman said.

“You know that most of the militant groups in Bangladesh claim their affiliation to al-Qaeda. Ansar Al Islam claims to be the sub-continental wing of al-Qaeda. Maybe that’s why they moved to Afghanistan. This is what they say, but we’re not sure about it,” he said.

A significant number of “Mujahideen”, or jihadist fighters, traveled from Bangladesh to Afghanistan to fight the war against the Soviets in the 80s.

Dr. Ali Riaz, a professor of politics and government at Illinois State University, traces the emergence of militancy in Bangladesh to HuJI.

According to Bangladeshi law enforcers, from 1999 to 2005, HuJi orchestrated 13 bomb and grenade attacks across the country, killing at least 103 and injuring over 700.

The most violent of these incidents was the grenade attack on a public rally joined by the then leader of the opposition Sheikh Hasina in 2004. Twenty-two people were killed in the blasts.

Police officials involved in counter-terror work say HuJI has started showing inklings of activity once again.

 (SAM)