More alarmingly, the investigators stay aloof from probing the activities of other extremist organisations including Harkatul Jihad al Islam (HuJi), Jagrata Muslim Janata, Bangladesh (JMJB), Shahadat-al Hiqma and Ahle Hadith Andolon. The first three organisations have been banned by the government.

The government high-ups, intelligence officials and the investigators on different occasions had said that the mystery would be unravelled once the JMB top brass are captured.

But they have failed to make a headway even in four months after the arrests of JMB chief Abdur Rahman, his deputy Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and some other top leaders.

"The detained JMB leaders have not disclosed anything other than that they had carried out the attacks to establish Islamic rule. What can we do if they don't give away any new information," a top-level investigator who had quizzed the JMB leaders told The Daily Star, seeking anonymity.

Asked whether their still not having significant leads can be termed a failure in conducting the investigation, he declined to comment.

No investigator would say anything officially on the latest developments in the investigation. But speaking off the record, some investigators said they tried to draw out information from the JMB leaders about their foreign links and source of funds and local political patrons, but to no effect.

"They keep saying that they don't have any foreign link or financier. They say ushor (contribution from crop yields) and contribution by members and well-wishers are their main source of funds," said an investigator.

On funding by two British Muslim leaders, the investigators quoted the militant leaders as saying that they had received 10,000 pounds from two Britons thanks to personal contact. They denied having any other foreign links.

Asked what could be the interest of the foreigners in financing the JMB, the investigator replied that the JMB leaders did not say anything on this.

The investigators did not proceed further to dig into the matter.

Although Abdur Rahman had received firearms training in Afghanistan and Pakistan and is believed to have established a network there, the investigators say they did not find anything like that.

"Apart from their having training abroad, which they themselves have admitted, we didn't find anything suggesting they had foreign links," said an investigator.

The newspapers in 2004 carried detailed reports on the militants being sheltered by ruling coalition leaders and lawmakers especially when Rahman and Bangla Bhai were running an open vigilante campaign in the northern region, the investigators then too did not find any existence of political patrons.

But the militant kingpins themselves had threatened in open courts to divulge the names of their political patrons, saying it will "expose their hidden faces".

An investigator said, "They speak so only when they are in public. But they don't say anything of that sort during interrogation."

The investigators so far have succeeded only in extracting information about the militant dens, whereabouts of some leaders and their involvement in some previous attacks.

Besides, they [investigators] could not yet detect the entire JMB network in the country.

"They in fact didn't have any well-organised network. They are good at motivating people to join them and that's how they had recruited people wherever possible," said the investigator.

But the successful operation of synchronised blasts in 63 districts on August 17 last year speaks volumes of the JMB's organisational strength.

In an interview with The Daily Star in May 2004, Rahman and Bangla Bhai themselves had claimed to have over 10,000 fulltime activists, 1 lakh part-timers and innumerable well-wishers across the country. They also said they would then spend up to Tk 7 lakh on them a month.

Some investigators on condition of anonymity told The Daily Star that apart from these, they have obtained some significant information that cannot be disclosed due to government prohibition. "It is rather safe to say we haven't got any other information," said an investigator.

Meantime, the government and the investigators seem to be the least concerned to probe the activities of other extremist organisations but the government maintains that the intelligence and law enforcement agencies are keeping a constant watch on the militants.

However, there are no instructions from the government for investigation into extremist activities inside the country, even into those of banned HuJi, JMJB and Shahadat-al-Hiqma.

While banning the JMB, JMJB, HuJi and Shahadat-al-Hiqma, the government accused them of carrying out terrorist activities. But the investigators said they have no evidence to suggest that JMJB, HuJi, Shahadat-al-Hiqma or any other organisation are involved in militant activities.

"How can we term an organisation militant or go for rounding up its activists until we have any proof of their involvement?" asked an investigator.

Captured JMB Majlish-e-Shura member Khaled Saifullah, who received training in Afghanistan, was a former leader of the HuJi. But the investigators find it a personal case of Khaled, saying that the JMB did not have any connection with HuJi.

Although several hundred people had received training and fought as Mujahideens against the former Soviet Union forces in Afghanistan and later for Talibans and operated overtly on return to Bangladesh, investigators do not have any list of them or their whereabouts.

The HuJi Bangladesh high command includes Shaikhul Hadith Allama Azizul Haq, also chief of a faction of ruling alliance partner Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ), Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish second-in-command Muhammad Habibur Rahman of Sylhet, Ataur Rahman Khan of Kishoreganj, Sultan Jaok of Chittagong, Abdul Mannan of Faridpur and Habibullah of Noakhali.

All of them are associated with different Islamic organisations and madrasas, and one of them, Ataur Rahman Khan, was elected a lawmaker on BNP ticket in 1991 from Kishoreganj-3.

In an interview a few years back, Habibur Rahman disclosed those names, with whom he had travelled to Afghanistan via Pakistan in 1988, visited some Taliban militant camps and met al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.