How and when they were held
Staff Correspondent
With the arrests of Salahuddin and Khaled Saifullah in Chittagong and Dhaka Tuesday evening and yesterday, all the seven members of Majlish-e-Shura, top decision-making body of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) are now captured.The law enforcers carried out a countrywide crackdown to arrest the top JMB leaders in an effort to cripple the banned outfit in the wake of growing panic due to repeated bomb attacks by the militants since August 17, 2005. The law enforcers' first significant success came on November 18 last year when the police arrested Abdul Awal Sarker alias Adil alias Ashiq alias Arafat, a Shura member also son-in-law of JMB chief Abdur Rahman, from Thakurgaon old bus station. He was responsible for greater Rajshahi region. As suicide bombers of JMB were continuing to carry out bomb attacks in different parts of the country, Rapid Action Battalion arrested another Shura member Ataur Rahman Sunny, JMB's military unit chief, from Tejgaon Polytechnic Institute on December 13 last year. Younger brother of the JMB chief, Sunny was in charge of Dhaka region. Rab arrested another Shura member Mohammad Rakib Hasan Russell alias Hafez Mahmud, 28, from near Baitul Mukarram mosque in Dhaka on February 28 this year. An Afgan war veteran, Hafez Mahmud was the Khulna divisional commander of JMB. The most significant success of the law enforcers against the militants was the capture of JMB supremo Abdur Rahman, on March 3 from a safe house in Sylhet town. The man, who terrorised the country with his ruthless squads of bombers and preferred death to surrender for the cause of Jihad, walked out of his den, meek and cowed, into the hands of Rab, ending a 34-hour standoff. Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, who was responsible for Chittagong region also the operations commander of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, another banned outfit, was captured wounded by Rab on March 6 from a remote hideout in Rampur village in Muktagachha, Mymensingh after skirmishes with the elite battalion. Rab captured Salahuddin alias Salehin, who was responsible for Sylhet-Mymensingh region, from Pahartoli in Chittagong Tuesday evening. Members of the elite force arrested Faruq Hossain alias Khaled Saifullah, who was responsible for Rangpur-Dinajpur regions, from his rented house in Konapara in Demra in the capital yesterday morning.
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