A policeman died trying to stop attackers who snatched away three top radicals of the banned Jam’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) at Mymensingh’s Trishal Upazila. The dead policeman was identified as Constable Atiqul Islam, said Trishal Police OC Firoz Talukder.
Two other policemen were injured after the van, carrying the convicts from Gazipur’s Kashimpur prison to a court in Mymensingh, was bombed.
A vehicle was used to barricade and bomb the prison van at Signboard area at 10am on Sunday, said OC Firoz.The three JMB radicals who were snatched after the daring attack were Jahidul Islam alias Boma Mizan, Salauddin Salehin, Hafez Mahmud alias Raqib Hasan. Salauddin and Raqib were on death row and Jahidul Islam was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Police and security forces have launched a massive hunt for the JMB radicals who escaped, possibly with others from the outfit who launched the daring attack. Sunday’s successful snatch raid worries intelligence officials.
“This indicates that the JMB which had been largely neutralised has regrouped. Or else how can they go for such a planned raid and carry it out successfully,” said a senior intelligence official. The JMB was responsible for the countrywide serial bombings on Aug 17, 2005.
At large: Jahidul Islam Shumon or Boma Mizan, from Jamalpur Sadar, is a lifer accused in 19 cases and awarded sentence in five.
RAB arrested this most-wanted JMB explosives expert in 2009.
He is said to have received training in explosives from Nasrullah and Mollah Omar of JMB after he was drafted into the group from his early background in violent student politics.
Mizan was sentenced to 26 years of rigorous imprisonment along with three other JMB militants for their involvement in a bomb attack on the court of the then Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate Akram Hossain in Oct, 2005.
Narayanganj’s Salauddin Salehin, a death row convict in three cases of the 40 cases in which he is accused.
He is an executive or ‘Shura’ member of the JMB group. Hafez Mahmud alias Raqib Hasan, 35, also faces death sentence in three cases of the 19 he is accused in.- bdnews24.com
UNB adds: Police recovered five crude bombs, one pistol, two bullets, four mobile phone sets and a rod-cutter from the vehicle.
Later, the joint forces comprising police and Rab arrested Rakib Hasan and another snatcher, Raihan, from Taktarchala village in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, two inquiry committees have been formed to look into the snatching of the three convicted JMB members.
The Home Ministry formed a four-member probe panel, headed by its Additional Secretary Nazimuddin Chowdhury while the Police Headquarters constituted the other three-man committee, led by Deputy Inspector General (Current Charge) of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Syful Alam.
The committees have been asked to come up with their reports within three working days.
On the other hand, the Police Headquarters announced a Tk 2-lakh bounty on each of the two JMB convicts for information leading to their arrest.
Besides, members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have been asked to remain alert so that the absconding JMB convicts cannot cross the border along Bangladesh and Myanmar, said BGB headquarters.
– bdnews24.com
