Word: meccas
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...nine months the exact nature of the Mecca's cargo or the shipment's eventual destination remained unknown. But there were clues. Portworkers that night said they saw five motor launches ferry in large groups of men from the boat wearing black turbans, long beards and traditional Islamic salwar kameez. Their towering height suggested these travelers were foreigners, and the boxes of ammunition and the AK-47s slung across their shoulders helped sketch a sinister picture. Then in July, a senior member of Bangladesh's largest terrorist group, the 2,000-strong al-Qaeda-allied Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami...
...Mecca, its passengers' plans remained a mystery. One military source says most of the men stayed in Bangladesh rather than merely transiting, although he adds it was not clear whether the group sought only refuge or planned to establish a new base of operations. On Sept. 24, a fuller picture finally began to emerge when Bangladesh's domestic intelligence agency arrested four Yemenis, an Algerian, a Libyan and a Sudanese at three houses in the upper-crust district of Uttara in Dhaka. Bangladeshi intelligence sources said they received information from "several" foreign agencies that the men?Abu Nujaid of Libya...
...charges or proceedings were brought. After they were freed from custody, the seven were driven to Dhaka's Sheraton hotel where they spent the night, and then disappeared. TIME's HUJI source claimed the trafficking story was merely an official smoke screen. "These are the same guys from the Mecca," he said. "These are bin Laden's people. They've been hiding here for several months...
...militants want to come in here and buy themselves new passports and new identities, stock up on any weapons they might want and maybe do a little refresher training before heading off again, there's nothing to stop them." Indeed, December was a repeat visit for the Mecca, according to the HUJI source. In June 2001, he says the boat sailed from Karachi to Chittagong with 50 other militants who had completed their training in bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan...
...with their counterparts in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and have a long history of supporting rebels fighting Indian rule across the border, including providing safe houses in Dhaka for the leaders of the United Liberation Front for Assam (ULFA). The HUJI source and the portworkers who saw the Mecca arrive claim that the man who greeted the new arrivals was a major in the DGFI. The major checked the visitors in by name and led them to a fleet of suvs lined up on the docks, add the portworkers. A spokesman for the DGFI denied knowing that members...