While Islamist extremists, who were nurtured under previous regimes, have not engaged in any act of overt violence in 2009, groups like the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) continue to maintain an active presence across the country, despite their proscription and the arrest of a number of their cadres. Police sources suggested in June 2009 that JMB militants had started regrouping in the remote villages of four Sub-Districts in Chapainawabganj. JMB cadres had fled their localities during the crackdown after the August 17 serial bomb blasts in 2005, had returned to their areas in Shibganj, Bholahat, Gomostapur and Sadar Sub-Districts, and were trying to recruit new cadres. According to the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), at least 5,000 JMB cadres remained active across the country. The JMB is also reported to be seeking to ideologically mobilize new recruits, or to entice these with offers of money[1]. The dawati(proselytisation) unit of the outfit first selects youths from poor families in rural areas or by visiting mosques, and these are then exposed to radical ideas and militant cadres, in preparation for jihad. A senior RAB official explains the process: "If the targets respond positively the JMB operatives start giving them some religious books, particularly those on jihad. They also give them a certain monthly amount to gain their confidence and slowly make them dependent on the outfit. At one stage the targets become infatuated with the JMB." He added that some of the recently detained militants disclosed that the outfit was providing a monthly amount of Tk 500 per ‘target’. The JMB has also sought to strengthen its links in Pakistan. On June 21, 2009, an unidentified senior RAB official told Daily Star that some key JMB members, wanted by the enforcement agencies, had shifted to Pakistan for military training or had joined militant groups in that country[2].
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