$10,000 spent on cafe attack: police

The Neo JMB had spent around $10,000 to carry out the July 1 Gulshan café attack that left 22 people including two police officials dead, a top DMP official said yesterday.

“The total expenditure was not more than $10,000. The price of five 9mm pistols seized in the café is around Tk 2 lakh and that of three Ak-22 assault rifles is Tk 3 lakh,” said Monirul Islam, chief of Counter Terrorism unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Briefing reporters at the DMP media centre, he said the militant group had spent the rest of the money to buy 11 grenades and other explosives, pay house rent and buy the clothes they wore to pose for the photographs circulated hours after the attack and for some other purposes.

The outfit received a portion of the money from abroad.

Police have documentary proof that the militant group received Tk 10 lakh and another Tk 18 lakh from abroad before the attack at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan, he said.

Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury was the main coordinator of the attack and he collected funds from various sources, police said.

The DMP official said the Neo JMB has no organisational capacity to carry out any major attack at present. The outfit is trying to recruit new operatives and collect arms and explosives, but they are not succeeding due to the alertness of law enforcement agencies.