‘JMB man’ arrested with arms

Police arrested a suspected member of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) at Shajahanpur upazila early yesterday for his alleged involvement in a gun attack on a Shia mosque in Shibganj upazila that left the mosque muezzin dead last year.

The arrestee, Abdul Momin, 25, of Kamarpara village in Shajahanpur upazila, is a second-year student of political science at Government Azizul Haque College in Bogra.

At a press briefing in his office yesterday, Mohammad Asaduzzaman, superintendent of police in Bogra, said acting on a tip-off that some men of the banned militant organisation were holding a secret meeting at the house of Momin in Kamarpara, a police team raided there around 3:00am.

The team then arrested Momin along with an AK-22 rifle, a foreign pistol, four magazines and 52 bullets. Other JMB men managed to flee.

During interrogation, Momin confessed to police that the rifle was used in the Shia mosque attack, the police official claimed.

Momin also said JMB men used to come to his house before the attack. But he did not admit his involvement in the attack or disclose the source of the arms, the SP said.

Additional Superintendent of police in Bogra Arifur Rahman Mondal, who led the drive, said Momin was produced before a court here with a 10-day remand prayer.

The court placed him on a seven-day remand, Arif added.

On November 26, 2015, a gang of JMB men stormed the Shia mosque in Haripur village in Shibganj and opened fire on praying people, killing Moazzem Hossain, 70, muezzin of the mosque, and injuring three others.