MOSCOW, September 29 (RIA Novosti) – A British-run recruitment cell for the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group has been uncovered in Bangladesh after detectives traced a Muslim convert from east London to the South Asian nation's capital Dhaka, British newspaper The Telegraph reported.
Samiun Rahman, a 24-year-old former convict, was arrested in the Bangladeshi capital six months after his arrival. Detectives were able to catch up with the alleged IS recruiter following a string of arrests involving would-be Islamic militants over the previous few weeks.
Young men were told they would join the IS insurgency in Syria after crossing over from Turkey posing as moderate Islamic rebels. A son of a retired judge was among those detained, according to the British daily.
Rahman's neighbor in London told British media the man had converted to Islam while in prison. She said the suspect had lived an antisocial life marked by excessive drinking and drug abuse before the imprisonment, but in a few months came out as a completely different person and eventually left for the Middle East.
The neighbor also cited Rahman's mother as saying she feared he had gone to fight alongside IS terrorists.
Some 2,500 European Union citizens are reported to be fighting in Syria. The United Kingdom earlier granted law enforcement officials the right to strip terrorist suspects of their passports and citizenship without judicial oversight.
The IS controls vast swathes of land in Syria and northern Iraq. Their radical take on Islam has already forced tens of thousands of Christians, Shiites and Yazidis to flee their homes in Iraqi Kurdistan alone. The group proclaimed a caliphate over the conquered territories in June.
