After a tip off, six teams of Rab-9 have cordoned off Tero Ratan and Block F of Shahjalal on the outskirts of the city late last night.

The elite crime busters were hunting for Salahuddin alias Salehin, chief of Sylhet division JMB, and Saidur Rahman, former ameer of Habiganj district Jamaat and also a JMB activist, said Rab sources.

The raids were undertaken on the basis of information provided by detained JMB chief Abdur Rahman, who was arrested Thursday at a East Shaplabagh house in the district.

Salahuddin is in charge of the banned outfit's operations in Sylhet and Mymensingh region while Saidur Rahman is the one whose chequebook was found at the Shaplabagh house.

The Rab has been dispatching forces to different places following up the information obtained from Rahman, who remains under extensive interrogation by the Task Force Intelligence (TFI) at Rab-1 office in Uttara in the capital.

Rumours were rife that the raids were being conducted on intelligence that Bangla Bhai and Khaled Saifullah, the two members of JMB Majlish-e-Shura, the top decision-making body, had been holed up in the area.

But later Rab officials said they had been conducting searches in those places mainly for Salahuddin and Saidur Rahman. The elite force was not allowing journalists in the closed off area until filing of this report at 2:00am.