Dhaka – The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on Wednesday arrested four suspected members of a new faction of banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (Neo JMB) from Jatrabari area in the city.
They were identified as Md Ashfak-e-Azam alias Apel, Mahbubur Rahman, Ashraf and Shaniuzzaman.Police also seized firearms and huge amount of explosives from a house in Dholaipar area early yesterday.
The seizure includes two pistols, 21 rounds of ammunition, four sharp weapons, gun powder and bomb-making materials, said RAB-10 chief Jahangir Hossain Matubbar.
Amid law-enforcers’ crackdown, the militants had been scattered. We received inputs that they were regrouping, he added.
Ashfak had a Masters degree in computer since from a private university and worked at different places. Ashfak is involved with JMB since 2011.
Shahinuzzaman, another active member of the group, took militant training along with others at a house in Mirpur and some other areas and in Chittagong, he received training on the use of small firearms, RAB claimed.
According to the RAB ,Ashfak sustained bullet injury on his leg during the training. RAB Legal and Media Wing Director Mufti Mahmud Khan said,‘‘All of the detainees belong to JMB’s Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury and Sarwar Jahan faction. We are suspecting that Apel is the head of the IT section of the fraction.”
He said, “They rented the house on January 23, identifying themselves as construction workers. They were preserving the arms and explosives there. We suspect that they were planning some attacks.”
Two of them came to rent the house identifying them as brothers, he said.
“They told the house owner that they would fill up the Tenant Information form on February 1,” he said.
A team of RAB members came to the house around 4:00am and asked one of our ground floor tenants to open the collapsible gate, a resident of the house described the drive.
Police also detained the house owner, Sailu Begum, 45 and the ground-floor tenant Faruk for interrogation, said Saber Hossain Anas, younger son of the house owner.
A case was filed in this connection and process to hand over the suspected militants were on till filing the report. – Staff Reporter
