Harakat ul Jihad-I-Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B). The group is also known as Islami Dawat-e-Kafela (IDEK) and Harkatul Jihad al Islam.

Bangladesh (primarily Chittagong region to the border with Burma (Myanmar) and the eastern corridor to India).

The objective of Harakat ul Jihad-I-Islami-Bangladesh (HuJI-B) is to establish Islamic rule and culture in Bangladesh, mainly through militant activities and assassinations.

HuJI-B is estimated to have several thousand active members.HUJI-B leaders have claimed up to 400 members are Afghan war veterans.

The origin of HuJI-B was at least partly inspired by Al-Qaida, and the group retains links with the Al-Qaida network. The group also retains ties with remnants of the Taliban militia, stemming from the migration and return of militants participating in the Afghanistan jihad. HuJI-B has ties to other radical groups within Bangladesh, including the Asif Reza Commando Force that claimed responsibility for an attack on the American Center in West Bengal in 2002. HUJI-B has also been linked to the Pakistani militant groups Harakat ul-Jihad-Islami (HUJI) and Harakat ul-Mujahedin (HUM). The group reportedly has received financial support from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia through Muslim-associated non-governmental associations (NGOs) operating in Bangladesh. Financial support from the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency is also strongly suspected.

HuJI-B has engaged in both successful and unsuccessful assassinations of political and intellectual leaders, and has also targeted British and American facilities. It operates several training camps for militants. As a result of its affiliation with similar groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan, it is has trained militants not only for its own objectives but also for other organizations, includingRohingya, an Islamic minority group in Burma. HuJI-B recruits cadres from madrassas sympathetic to its aims.

The Harakat ul Jehad al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) was established in 1992, as an outgrowth of the Harakat ul Jehad al Islami of Pakistan. The group was said to have been formed with the assistance of Osama bin Laden’s International Islamic Front. HuJI-B's presence has been aided by the cultural and political developments related to the formation of Bangladesh in 1971. While the country's original constitution provided for a secular state, owing to the presence of Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist cultures, that situation eroded between 1975 and 1990. Successive regimes headed by military leaders began to support and encourage the longstanding Islamic element within the society. Although a representative government and legislature were adopted, the government proclaimed Islam as the state religion in 1988.

One major political faction, the Bangladesh National Party, openly courted Islamic elements to obtain a ruling coalition in the government. Islamic fervor in the region and the weakness and corruption of the government inevitably led to religious intolerance, especially against Hindu elements. While Bangladesh had a history of violence, including Maoist activities during the 1970s and regional insurgencies in Chittagong, such activities rarely involved religious motivations. The lack of a viable economy also generated unrest and provided an opportunity for Islamic forces, including Saudi extremists, to exploit the situation.

HuJI-B emerged, along with another group, the Jamaat ul Mujahideen Bagladesh (JMB), as the most radical of Islamic organizations espousing violent means to achieve their ends. Religiously affiliated violence instigated by HuJI-B and JMB increased in the late 1990s and has remained at a significant level. The government, after turning a blind eye to terrorist attacks, began to take action against radical groups in recent years. In 2005, the government officially listed HuJI-B as a terrorist group.

Government efforts apparently have weakened the group's ability to function and conduct attacks. In May 2008, a Bangladesh government official acknowledged that HuJI-B may still have a presence in the country, but insisted that its activities had been severely curtailed.

July 20: Government forces recovered explosive devices located near the venue for an expected appearance of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the Gopalanj district. HuJI-B leader Mufti Abdul Hannan was suspected of participating in the plot.

April 14: Suspected HuJI cadres set off a blast at a New Year's day celebration in Dhaka, killing at least eight people.

May 21: Three people were killed and about 70 others, including the British high commissioner, were wounded in a HuJI-B grenade attack on the Hazrat Shah Jalal shrine in Sylhet city after Friday prayers.

August: Militants attempted to assassinate Shaykh Hasina Wazed, Bangladesh's second female prime minister. HuJI-B later claimed responsibility for the attempt.

November: HuJI-B leader Mufti Abdul Hannan composed a 19-page document admitting his role in several bomb attacks and revealed details of HuJI-B's organization, funding and support from madrassas and sources outside of Bangladesh. Hannan had been apprehended in October 2005.

June: HuJI-B leaders formed a political party named Islami Gono Andolan and sought government permission for the party to operate openly in early 2008.

August: HuJI-B conducted a meeting in Dhaka at a national mosque under the title of Sachetan Islami Janata -- an Islamist forum.

March 6: The Bangladesh Home Ministry declared that there had been no recent HuJI-B operations in the country and that security forces were on alert to detect any resurgence of the group's activities.

April 19: Security forces arrested an associate of Mufti Abdul Hannan, the imprisoned operations commander of the HuJI-B. Police said the arrested man, who ran a madrassa, was suspected of participating in several grenade attacks.

May 20: The Bangladeshi government reported that HuJI-B had been marginalized as a result of a campaign launched by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), a special anti-crime and anti-terrorist security force.

June 10: A court sentenced four HuJI-B militants to 20 years in jail for possessing arms and explosives. Two of the four were in custody at the time of sentencing. The government was especially active in June, arresting and prosecuting many suspected of involvement with HuJI-B.

Oct. 1: A series of five blasts in Agartala, Tripura, India, killed at least four people and wounded more than 100 others. Two other bombs were defused. Indian police suspected HuJI-B involvement.

Oct. 28: The Bangladesh Election Commission rejected the applications of nearly 40 political parties, including the Islamic Democratic Party (IDP), which had been organized by HuJI-B leaders. The commission ruled that IDP had failed to meet constitutional requirements.

Dec. 23: The government sentenced three HuJI-B militants, including chief mufti Abdul Hannan, to death in a murder case related to the May 2004 grenade attack on then-British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury in May 2004.

April 16: Charges were filed against 14 HuJI-B members, including chief mufti Abdul Hannan, in connection with the Ramna Batamul bomb blast of April 14, 2001.

Aug. 1: Security forces arrested six HuJI-B militants, charging them in different cases involving bombing or grenade attacks.

Sept. 14: A U.S. drone strike in North Waziristan, Pakistan, likely killed Ilyas Kashmiri, identified as the HuJI operational chief of the Azad Kashmir section and a key leader of HuJI-B. Nazimuddin Khilalof, alias Najmuddin Jalolov, leader of the Islamic Jihad Group, was also believed killed in the strike.

Oct. 27: The U.S. Justice Dept. charged a U.S. citizen, David Coleman Headley, and a Canadian citizen, Tahawwur Hussaun Rana, with illegal activities involving terrorist operations abroad. The department said that Headley was involved with Ilyas Kashmiri, the HuJI-B chief killed by a U.S. drone strike the previous month. Headley was allegedly planning attacks on employees of a Danish newspaper that had published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in 2005, a cause celebre that was exploited widely among Muslims.