Dhaka: As several top militant suspects have gone into hiding after securing bails in different cases and are trying to reorganise their followers, special directives have been given to the law enforcement agencies for hunting them down.

Law enforcement agencies are worried as they have information that the absconding militant leaders and activists have started reorganising the group to carry out subversive and terror acts across the country.

Many militant leaders and activists have secured their bails through the loopholes of laws, intelligence sources said.

Law enforcement agencies have information that a few of them have gone into hiding—both at home and abroad.

According to the sources, Maulana Idris Ali, a close aide of arrested Harkat-ul Jihad-Al-Islami (HuJI) top leader Mufti Hannan, got bail and was released from jail on 20 January 2011 and he has remained absconding since then.

HuJI leaders Maulana Abdul Latif and Shakhwat Hossain alias Dulal were released from jail on 28 August 2010, and 17 April 2011, respectively. There is information that both of them are now there in the country.

Maulana Akbar Hossain alias Helel Uddin, an accused of the grenade attack on Awami League rally in front of Bangabandu Avenue, was released from jail on 18 August 2011. He has reportedly been staying in Pakistan.

Maulana Ashraful Islam, who was released from jail on 7 May 2012, has also been in hideout in the country.

Top government policymakers have expressed their concern about the militants’ tendency to go into hideouts after securing bails. Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Haque recently urged lawyers' aides not to submit any wakalatnama (letter of authority) for bail petitions of the militant outfits.

He also advised them to put bar to moving bail petition for militants to gear up a social resistance against militancy.

Earlier, the law minister also urged the judiciary to be stricter and judges to be more stringent in dealing with bail pleas of the militants. A process is already underway to form a separate cell in the law ministry to monitor the cases related to militancy.

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) headquarters has already issued an order to all of its battalions to intensify their drives to arrest the militant leaders and activists went into hiding after securing bails.

Sources at the RAB Headquarters said the elite force has so far arrested a large number of leaders and activists of the banned militant outfits JMB, HuJI and Hizbut Tahrir.

Of them, 192 JMB men, 74 HuJI leaders and activists and 109 Hizbut Tahrir men secured their bails.

Contacted, Director of RAB Intelligence Wing Abul Kalam Azad said the elite force has already made a list of militant leaders and activists who have gone into hiding after securing bails.

Instructions have already been sent to all the RAB battalions and camps to find out the absconding militants as well as the accused militants, who are running away in various cases filed with different police stations across the country, the RAB Intelligence director said.

He said vigilance has also been intensified to monitor the militants who are now on bail but regularly appear before the court. ‘Besides, search has been on for those who have joined militant outfits recently,’ he added.

A senior officer of Detective Branch (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) requesting anonymity said detectives have been searching for some absconding militants.