3 Bangladeshis deported from Malaysia over militant links sent to jail

A Dhaka court has ordered the imprisonment of three Bangladeshi nationals recently deported from Malaysia on charges of involvement with militant activities.

The individuals were arrested in Malaysia for alleged links to the Islamic State (IS) and were returned to Bangladesh earlier this week.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate M Mizbah Ur Rahman issued the order on Saturday (July 4) after police produced the suspects before the court and sought their detention under Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code, Sub-Inspector Bakhtiar of the Airport Police Station confirmed.

At a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, Malaysia's police chief Khalid Ismail announced that 36 Bangladeshi nationals had been detained for suspected militant ties. Of them, three have been deported to Bangladesh, while preparations are underway to send back 15 others. The remaining 16 remain in Malaysian custody.

According to Malaysian police, the suspects were involved in financing IS-linked groups in Syria and Bangladesh. Authorities said the individuals used international money transfer services and e-wallets to fund extremist operations and utilized social media and encrypted messaging apps to spread radical ideology and recruit fellow Bangladeshi migrant workers.

Police sources estimate that 100 to 150 people may be involved in the transnational network.

Malaysia has ramped up anti-terror operations since an IS-linked bomb blast in Kuala Lumpur in 2016. Since then, the country's security forces have arrested hundreds of individuals suspected of ties to global terrorist organizations.