'Huji den' in Ctg busted
Rapid Action Battalion yesterday claimed to have busted a den of banned Islamist militant outfit Harkatul Jihad al Islami, Bangladesh (Huji-B) and arrested "its five members" in Chittagong city's Pahartali area.
The elite force also recovered firearms, bullets, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), jihadi books and bomb-making materials.
The arrestees are Tajul Islam, 27, of Faridpur, Nazim Uddin, 38, of Jessore, Abu Jar Gifari, 22, of Jhenidah, Nure Alam, 22, of Nilphamari, and Iftisham Ahmed alias Sami, 23, of Rangpur.
According to Rab-7, Tajul was the Huji-B coordinator of Dhaka region and Gifari the coordinator of Kushtia region. Iftisham was an Islami Chhatra Shibir activist of Rajshahi University unit.
Rab officials said they had information that the Huji-B men gathered in the port city to attack establishments of law enforcers, loot their arms and later use those to carry out militant activities. Besides, they had information that the militants had a plan to snatch their arrested top leaders from prison vans when they were to be taken to the court.
Mufti Mahmud Khan, director (media) of Rab, said Tajul and Nazim were arrested with two firearms, eight bullets and two magazines in the city's AK Khan area around 5:00am.
Based on the information gleaned from the duo, over 100 elite force members took position near a house named Mukim Talukder Bari in Uttar Kattali area around 6:00am, said Rab officials.
Around 9:30am, as the militants refused to open the door of the flat on the first floor of the three-storey house, the Rab members broke the door to get into the flat and arrested Gifari, Nure Alam and Iftisham.
The militants had burnt mobile phones and a laptop before the law enforcers entered the den, said Rab officials.
Briefing journalists on the spot, Mahmud said they recovered 12 IEDs, five magazines, 159 bullets, six sharp weapons, 10 CDs, some jihadi books and bomb-making materials from the flat.
The Rab official said one of the top leaders of Huji-B is Mufti Mainul Islam. Mainul runs the organisation following the ideologies of Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). The arrestees had a close connection with Mainul.
Miftah Uddin Ahmed, commanding officer of Rab-7, said house owner Monsur Ahmed, a night guard of ward-10 in Chittagong City Corporation, went into hiding.
Monsur's wife Jahanara Begum said a man, aged between 30 and 35, met her husband on December 1. Introducing himself as a garment worker, he said he wanted to rent the flat on the first floor.
“When we wanted to see his national ID card, he said he would show it when he would bring his wife. He took the keys to the flat on that day," said Jahanara.
Liakot Ali, a neighbour, said, "I never saw the three arrestees in our locality. I saw the lights on the first floor in the last two days and asked the house owner whether new tenants had moved in. The house owner informed me that a new tenant arrived."
A process was underway to file three cases against the five arrestees with Akbershah Police Station, said Sohel Mahmud, senior assistant director of Rab-7.
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