Although State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar on Monday claimed to have "good news" for the nation, saying the authorities are arresting the suppliers of explosives to the militants, he denied to give further details. "You will come to learn about it when time comes," Babar told reporters.

High officials of different law enforcement agencies are also abstaining from making any disclosure of their activities.

Different sources meanwhile confirmed that the name of the person arrested in Rajshahi is Tariqul. Terming the arrest "one of the big catches", they said he smuggled in the explosives used in all the JMB bomb attacks across the country.

Tariqul smuggled the detonators, power gel and other explosive materials by road, said the sources. JMB chief Abdur Rahman's younger brother Ataur Rahman Sunny paid Tariqul for the supplies, they added.

A team investigating into the rise of militancy and the bomb attacks across the country arrested the person, brought him to Dhaka, and is now quizzing him at an undisclosed place, some sources confirmed but declined to give further details.

Following Babar's claim on Monday, rumours ran high that the arrested person is either JMB chief Abdur Rahman or his close associate Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, who is also the operations commander of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh.

However, no law enforcement agencies officially acknowledged it to be true, brushing it aside as merely a rumour.

Taking a cue from Babar's claim, some officials said the minister referred to the arrest of JMB's regional commander Jewel in Gazipur with huge explosives the same day.

But sources confirmed The Daily Star that the minister indeed referred to the Rajshahi arrest.

The sources said the government might be intending to keep the matter undisclosed in a bid to quiz Tariqul first to gather information about the top JMB leaders and masterminds of the attacks and their whole network of explosive supply.

The investigators are trying to unearth the foreign links of the JMB from where Tariqul has been receiving the explosives, sources added.

"He must know a lot of significant information and the investigators first want to conduct some operations accordingly before disclosing the details about his arrest and identity," said a source.

The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) also did not disclose the arrest of Mufti Abdul Hannan, commander of the Bangladesh chapter of Harkatul Jihad, in Maddhya Badda on October 1 morning, until 7:00pm.

Although a few high officials did not acknowledge any such arrest in Rajshahi, they said last night that they will inform the media "in due time".