Rahman on March 19 told interrogators a 13-member JMB team, which also included Bangla Bhai, chased AL leader Tarapodo Poddar of Gaola village but could not have him due to locals' resistance.

As the AL leader managed to escape, the attackers took shelter at the house of a JMB activist. Police had arrested six militants including Bangla Bhai, but Rahman evaded arrest, the JMB chief told the interrogators.

The militant kingpin also said 20 JMB cadres in Bagerhat are looking for an opportunity to launch bomb attacks on some specific targets.

Meantime, the sedition case filed against JMB's seven Majlish-e-Shura members on March 13 was transferred yesterday to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police.

Rahman and Bangla Bhai were shown arrested in a case filed for August 17 serial bomb blasts in Bogra yesterday where a court ordered reinvestigation into the case.

BAGERHAT
The JMB supremo and 12 others including Bangla Bhai stormed the house of AL leader Tarapodo at Gaola on the night of August 16, 2002, reports staff correspondent in Khulna.

Rahman said they attempted to slaughter Tarapodo as he had protested holding of a secret JMB meeting at Gaola the same evening.

"It was a rainy night," Abdur Rahman told the members of Task Force for Interrogation (TFI) in Dhaka while being quizzed about August 17 blast in Bagerhat and militants' training in the Sundarbans.

"His (Tarapodo's) son Tapan hit me in the head with a log when his father was going to be slaughtered. Tarapodo managed to run away taking the chance," a source in the DB of Bagerhat who interrogated Rahman at the TFI quoted him as saying.

They chased Tarapodo in a desperate attempt to slaughter him, but failed as villagers came forward and resisted them, the source added.

The police caught Bangla Bhai and others at the house of militant Hekmat Moka in the same village. However, Bangla Bhai was released in a couple of months.

Rahman also admitted that 80 militants received military training in the Sundarbans in June and July, 2004.

He and Bangla Bhai monitored the training on how to operate sophisticated firearms and detonate bombs and grenades, said the Bagerhat DB police.

"I visited Bagerhat town and Mollahat and some other upazilas of the district several times between 1997 and 2002 to recruit youths as militants," the DB officials quoted Rahman as saying.

Rahman told the interrogators the decision for countrywide serial blasts was taken at a Majlish-e-Shura meeting held at a house in Mymensingh town in June last year.

MYMENSINGH
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab)-9 arrested JMB activist Fazar Ali in Kutubpur village in Jamalpur in the early hours yesterday. He was an accomplice of Garibullah, a JMB ehsar member, reports our Mymensingh correspondent.

The Rab also recovered seven books on jihad from his possession.

The sedition case filed against Rahman, Bangla Bhai and five other Shura members with a Mymensingh court was transferred to the CID following directives from the police high-ups.

BOGRA
The Special Tribunal-4 in Bogra yesterday showed Rahman and Bangla Bhai arrested in a serial blast case as Public Prosecutor Saiful Islam appealed for it, our Bogra correspondent reported.

The court also ordered to include the name of JMB cadre Sirajul Islam alias Banu in the charge sheet as he made judicial confession about his involvement.

The police arrested JMB cadre Abdur Razzak in Gabtoli upazila in September 2004 and submitted the charge sheet against six including Rahman, Bangla Bhai and Razzak to the court on November 9.