Female Ansar al-Islam member makes confessional statement

Jobaida Siddique Nabila, reportedly the first female member of the banned militant outfit Ansar al-Islam arrested in Bangladesh, has made a confessional statement before a magistrate in a case filed with Badda police station on terrorism charges.

Metropolitan Magistrate Shahinur Rahman recorded the 19-year-old’s statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure on Thursday.

Nabila in her statement told the magistrate that she used to disseminate content propagating extremism through multiple Facebook pages.

She had two fake Facebook accounts, one ChirpWire account, and four Telegram accounts with 15 channels and around 25,000 followers.

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Many jihad-related books were uploaded at different times through these channels, according to her confessional statement.

Officials of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of DMP earlier said Nabila was in charge of the banned outfit’s media wing and also had connections with its military wing.

According to the CTTC, Nabila opened a fake account on Facebook in early 2020. At one point, she found Ansar al-Islam's official Facebook page, Titumir Media, and became acquainted with extremist ideologies.

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While accessing the extremist content, Nabila managed to establish communication with the admin panel of the page. The panel then became convinced enough to add her to the group's official site and other pages.

The CTTC apprehended Nabila, an HSC candidate at a college in Bhola’s Lalmohan upazila, from the capital’s Badda area on August 26.

Sub-inspector Faruk Hossain of the counter-terrorism force filed the case against her with Badda police station on the same day.

Following her arrest, a Dhaka court on August 27 placed Nabila on a five-day remand for interrogation.