Authorities yesterday put the prisons across the country on high alert in the wake of the threat issued on Wednesday.

The JMB made the threat in a letter written in Bangla and Arabic and sent to Superintendent of Tangail District Jail Shamsul Alam Bhuiyan.

The Directorate of Jail yesterday verbally asked all jail authorities to remain alert to ward off any possible attack, directorate sources said.

The guards of the jails have also been asked to beef up security measures and check prisoners when they return to the prisons from courts.

Meantime, JMB cadre Akhter Hossain, who confessed to hurling a bomb at a Sylhet judge, was sent back to Osmani Medical College and Hospital (OMCH) from Sylhet Central Jail on Wednesday as his health deteriorated.

TANGAIL JAIL
Security measures have been stepped up in and around the jail, courts and key installations in the wake of the threat, reports our Tangail correspondent.

High officials of the district administration visited the jail and directed its authorities to take special security measures.

Contacted, Jailer ABM Fattah told The Daily Star they have taken the threat seriously and are taking 'extra security measures' to face any situation.

"Security in and around the jail has been tightened and check posts have been set up at different points and streets adjacent to the jail," the jailer said.

Seven JMB militants arrested so far in different areas in the district are now in the jail. Among them, Yameen Miah and Delwar Hossen, arrested in Baropakhia Qawmi Madrasa in Delduar on August 28, have confessed before a first class magistrate to having links to the August 17 serial blasts.

SYLHET BOMBER
Our staff correspondent in Sylhet adds: Akhter was sent to jail on Wednesday night after his confessional statement on hurling a bomb at Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal Judge Biplob Goswami.

He was sent to the OMCH on health grounds the same night. A two-member team of the Special Security Force (SSF) of the Prime Minister's Office arrived in Sylhet and quizzed him at the hospital yesterday.

However, details of the quizzing could not be known immediately.

Three people including the two imams arrested on Tuesday in Sylhet were placed on a seven-day remand yesterday in connection with the bomb attack.

Sources said Judge Goswami asked the Sylhet deputy commissioner for a gunman for his security about a week before the Tuesday's attack.

All the eight Speedy Trial Tribunal judges in Sylhet, except the judge at the divisional headquarters, have already been provided with security men, the sources added.