New 'attack plan foiled' in Rajshahi
A plan to carry out terror attacks in Rajshahi was thwarted yesterday, as intelligence and law enforcement agencies played a proactive role, claim police.
“We had intelligence reports that militants would attack some important establishments in the Rajshahi metropolitan area and some other parts of the district. We foiled the plot,” said a top official at the police headquarters.
On condition of anonymity, the official said they also intercepted a message in which banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) said it failed to carry out terror attacks this time but would try again.
The official claimed that in recent times, they were able to foil several terror plots as they had intelligence reports.
Yesterday, heightened security measures were taken in Rajshahi city and its surrounding areas.
Policemen and Rab members were seen checking vehicles and frisking people at checkpoints in and around the city.
None was allowed to enter Rajshahi University camps without showing their identity cards.
Senior police officials, including the DIG of Rajshahi range, the Rajshahi Metropolitan Police commissioner and the Rajshahi SP, were seen monitoring the security measures.
Talking to The Daily Star, Deputy Inspector General of Rajshahi range M Khurshid Hossain said that acting on information, law enforcers had taken special security measures.
“Everything cannot be disclosed to the public,” he added.
Rajshahi Superintendent of Police Nisharul Arif said security in all upazilas of the district was tightened considering the overall situation in the country.
SAMPLES GIVEN TO FBI
Police yesterday gave hair and blood samples of the Gulshan café attackers to the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the USA for chemical tests at its laboratory.
Those were handed over to an FBI agent early yesterday, said Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner (media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
On Wednesday, doctors collected the samples from the bodies of the Gulshan gunmen to ascertain whether they had been under the influence of drugs while carrying out the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan on July 1.
According to an official statement, six militants were killed in a commando operation launched to end the bloody siege.
However, one of the six was later identified by Holey Artisan staff as their pizza chef Saiful Islam.
The authorities made the move following media reports that militants, especially members of the Islamic State, are using addictive pills, which help “fuel their fury”, before attacking the victims.
Meanwhile, joint forces conducted anti-militancy drives in remote char areas of Phulchhari upazila in Gaibandha and recovered seven sharp weapons, including sword, machete and dagger, from an abandoned house yesterday, reports our Gaibandha correspondent.
INDIA TO SHARE DETAILS
India will share with Bangladesh details about alleged links between Islamic State operative Abu Al-Musa Al-Bangali, who was arrested near Burdwan about two weeks ago, and the JMB, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
India's federal anti-terror body National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been asked to probe the links between Abu Al-Musa and a JMB senior leader, who was suspected as a conspirator of the Gulshan café attack, Indian home ministry sources told this newspaper yesterday.
Abu Al-Musa and the JMB man met a number of times between 2014 and 2015, and Bangladesh government shared with India a list of 10 IS suspects who, according to some Indian media reports, are hiding in India, added the sources.
Our Rajshahi correspondent Anwar Ali Himu contributed to this report.
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