A reliable source said intelligence men have gathered that founder of Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP-Janajuddha) Abdur Rashid Malitha alias Dada Tapan is active in Meherpur district to orchestrate violence on a large scale in conjunction with the religious extremists. He has lately been busy giving necessary instructions to his cadres to work jointly with the operatives of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

The state minister for home on Sunday quoting intelligence report said PBCP-Janajuddha have joined hands with JMB to carry out further attacks.

Meanwhile, investigators in Chittagong yesterday obtained some important information including numbers of over 150 mobile phones believed to have been used to co-ordinate the August 17 blasts. The intelligence agencies are now trying to identify the subscribers of those phones.

UNB adds: Md Barakatullah, a detained JMB leader, made his confessional statement before a magistrate in Bagerhat yesterday, saying he was involved in the August 17 blasts.

A madrasa teacher, Barakatullah also narrated how and who were involved in the blasts in Bagerhat on August 17.

Meanwhile, three more suspects were arrested from Joypurhat and Dinajpur yesterday in connection with the serial explosions.

Our Staff correspondent from Khulna reports: Police detectives yesterday arrested a homeopath in Khalishpur area of the city, suspecting him to be a top leader of an Islamist group having links to the countrywide explosions.

Masud bin Ishaque, the homeopath, has identified himself as a leader of Jama'atul Moslemin, a militant outfit.

Police said while making the arrest they had recovered from him also a note book containing land and cellphone numbers of Dr Asadullah al Galib, chief of Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh (Ahab), and Abdur Rahman, chief of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

"We have seized many documents which make us sure about his connection with the Islamist militants both at home and abroad," said Zahur Chowdhury, assistant commissioner (Detective Branch) of Khulna Metropolitan Police (KMP).

The recovered documents suggest that he [Masud] has always maintained close links to militant groups based in countries like the US and Japan, he added.

Besides, he took part in the Afghan war along with many others from Bangladesh.

Masud under interrogation has disclosed names of his three associates who had been 'militarily trained in Afghanistan'. They are Moulana Rezaul Karim of Digholia upazila of Khulna, Syed Ashraf Ali of Batiaghata upazila, and Mohammad Lokman Shaikh of Rupsha upazila of Khulna district.

"Lokman was part of the plan to plant bombs in Kotalipara of Gopalganj, where former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was supposed to address a rally in July 2000," Zahur Chowdhury quoted Masud as saying.

The arrested homeopath also disclosed to the DB police names of a number of people who he said detonated bombs at 13 points across Khulna city on August 17. The bombs used had been brought from India through Satkhira border and kept stored inside an Ahle Hadith mosque at Dumuria upazila.

Besides, he connected with the planning of the blasts some leaders of a fundamentalist political outfit that operate overtly.

Earlier Masud was described as a dangerous element for the society by some Islamist extremists arrested recently in Chittagong, said AC Zahur.

Our Staff correspondent from Chittagong reports: Intelligence personnel believe that users of the seized cell phones are very much likely to be leaders of JMB and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB).

The identification of those cellphone subscribers would lead to the masterminds behind the serial blasts, said the sources in joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) in Chittagong.

Arshadul Alam during interrogation in JIC custody yesterday admitted that the top brass of JMB used over 150 mobile phones on August 17 to co-ordinate the near-simultaneous blasts.

The investigators have retrieved the numbers from Arshadul's mobile phone, which became non-functional immediately after the blast incidents.

Sources in the JIC said that they are now convinced that the cadres and field-level workers of JMB had carried out the blasts.

According to rules of the militant organisation, the field-level workers must not know the identities of the persons at the top level of the organisation, sources said.

If anyone from the lower level happens to know the identity of those at the upper level he must face punishments like gauging out of eyes, the source added.

The five suspects now on seven-day remand seem to know little about the people at the top echelons of the outfit, said the investigators.

Meanwhile, sources said that a team of intelligence men was now in Dhaka to track down the person who had sent TK 1 lakh 45 thousand to Arshadul's account with Islami Bank's Agrabad branch before the blasts. The money was sent from the Motijheel branch of the same bank.

Our Satkhira correspondent reports: A court here yesterday placed on remand Anisur Rahman Khokon, Monwar Hossain Ujjal, and Indian national Gias Uddin. The three who were arrested for suspected links to the blasts were taken on a seven-day remand each.

They were sent to Dhaka to face grilling by the JIC.

Meanwhile, a Naogaon court yesterday sent to jail the two Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) members, arrested in connection with the August 17 explosions, after police produced them before the court on completion of seven days' remand, reports UNB.

The two Abul Kalam Azad, 45, and Moulana Abdul Majid, 35.

Police said the arrestees while on remand have given important information about the cross-country bombings.