Jahangir being quizzed about 2 terror cases

As Jahangir Alam alias Rajib Gandhi, a mastermind of the Gulshan café attack, confessed to his involvement in it, Bogra police began quizzing him to find out his links to two other militant attacks in the district.

Before his arrest by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit in Tangail on January 13, Jahangir worked as the north Bengal military commander of “Neo JMB”.

Apart from the country's worst ever terror attack case, he is an accused in 22 other cases including those filed in connection with the killings of Japanese citizen Kunio Hoshi, Tangail tailor Nikhil Joardar, Pabna priest Nityaranjan Pandey, Rangpur's Khadem Rahmat Ali and Panchagarh priest Jogeshwar Dasa Dhikari.

He made a confessional statement before a Dhaka metropolitan magistrate on January 23, acknowledging that he was involved in the Gulshan attack that killed 20 hostages including 17 foreigners.

Since Jahangir joined “Neo JMB” as the commander severing his ties with mainstream Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, “we are suspecting he had a role in other militant attacks in the district,” said Arifur Rahman Mondal, additional police super of Bogra.

Besides, Jahangir's name had come up during interrogations of some militants, he added.

Meanwhile, a Bogra court yesterday granted 15-day remand for Jahangir, also known as Shuvash, after police showed him arrested in a grenade blast and explosive recovery cases filed with Sherpur and Shibganj police.

Police told the court that they were suspecting Rajib had involvement in those incidents and so they wanted to grill him to get information about others responsible.

Senior judicial magistrates Md Kamruzzaman and Abdullah-Al-Mamun passed the order.

On April 03 last year, two were killed as a grenade went off at a house in Juanpur Kuthibari of Sherpur upazila, Bogra. Later Sherpur police filed a case under the explosives act.

On June 13 of the same year, police arrested one suspected militant named Awal and recovered huge explosives and weapons during a drive at Vaiyerpukur in Shibganj.