A high police official here seeking anonymity said Delduar is e an area from where perhaps the highest number of JMB militants have been recruited.

JMB recruited about 100 cadres from the area, the police official told this correspondent. Twelve of the 30 JMB suicide bombers recruited from Tangail district are from Delduar, the police official said.

Police so far arrested 30 militants including three suicide bombers and busted four dens of JMB (Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh) since the serial bombings on August 17 last year.

Police also recovered huge quantities of explosive and bomb making materials from the dens in Baropakhia, Lawhati, Putiajani and Elachipur in Delduar upazila and adjacent Madarkol, Kamarnaogaon, Herendrapara, Bhurbhuria and Baruha villages.

Police are hunting for JMB's Narayanganj 'district commander' Mollah Omar alias Shakil Ahmed, 25, Tangail 'district commander' Abdullah Taslim, 30, and nine suicide squad members, all hailing from Delduar, he added.

Others from Delduar on the hunt list include JMB Tangail district trainer Iliyas, 27; Afghanistan-returnee Zubayer, 37; and 'regional commanders' Mohammad Fazlu, 30; Hafez Abdul Kader, 27; Khaled Siddiki, 22.

Abdul Alim, Office-in-Charge (OC) of Delduar police station, was closed earlier for failure to nab the militants.

JMB started its militant activities in the upazila centering Baropakhia Qaumi Madrasa, two kilometres from the upazila headquarters in 2003, police sources said.

In two years, the militant outfit set up four dens in Baropakhia, Lauhati, Putiajani and Elachipur, where militants were given training on use of arms and bomb making, the sources said.

JMB chief Shaiekh Abdur Rahman and his younger brother and military wing chief Ataur Rahman Sunny, younger brother of Abdur Rahman, used to visit the training camps and held meetings.

JMB in their first operation in Delduar blasted a bomb at a jatra (opera) function at Tukchandpur on January 8 last year. Ataur Rahman Sunny along with Molla Omar alias Shakil Ahmed and another cadre in Delduar led the attack, police sources claimed.

The three arrested suicide bombers are Toriqul Islam, 16, of Mouloubipara village and two brothers--Mir Suman, 22, and Mir Dipon-- of Bhurbhuria village in Delduar. The rest nine suicide bombers recruited from the upazila are still evading arrests.

Mir Sumon and Mir Dipon were arrested in a raid by police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in a fish firm at Bhurbhuria village on December 10 last year. A huge quantity of explosives and bomb making materials, enough to make over 200 bombs, were recovered during the raid.

Eight bombs were blasted in different spots in Tangail including the office premises of the Deputy Commissioner and the District Judge on August 17.

After the blasts, police arrested Delwar Hossen, 25, and Yameen Miah, 16, from Baropakhia Quami Madrasa on August 28. The arrestees gave confessional statements under Section 164 before a First Class Magistrate on September 6 and 7.

After their arrest, 11 JMB cadres surrendered to police.