DHAKA: A 24-year-old British citizen has been arrested in Bangladesh on suspicion of recruiting people to fight alongside the Islamic State (IS) group’s militants in Syria, police said on Monday.

Samiun Rahman, a resident of London, arrived in Bangladesh in February to recruit for both the IS and the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of the Detective and Criminal Intelligence Division, said.

“He had plans to recruit and send a team from Bangladesh to fight in Syria,” he told a news conference.

Police said Mr Rahman had confessed to trying to recruit militants.

They added that he was also planning to establish a militant network in Bangladesh and neighbouring Myanmar.

Police said the suspect was born in the United Kingdom, but his parents were from a town northeast of Dhaka.

The man told police he had joined the Nusra Front in Syria in September last year and fought with the group until December.

At some point, he returned to Britain, according to police, although they said he had visited other countries to recruit militants before arriving in Bangladesh.

Published in Dawn, September 30th , 2014