Police claim arrest of ‘Neo-JMB man who led attack on cops’
Counter-terrorism officials yesterday claimed to have arrested two members of militant group ‘Neo-JMB’, including the leader of a cell that was responsible for the attacks on police at five separate places in the capital last year.
A team of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested Md Jamal Uddin Rafique (26) and his associate Md Anowar Hossain (25) from the capital’s Jatrabari area on Sunday night, said Monirul Islam, additional commissioner of DMP and chief of CTTC unit.
Rafique is an engineer while Anowar is a driver, said the CTTC chief while addressing a briefing at media and community centre of DMP.
During primary interrogation, both arrestees admitted that they are members of Neo-JMB -- an ultra-radical offshoot of the banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) -- and also confessed their involvement in the attacks, said police.
On April 29, two traffic police constables and a community traffic policeman were injured in a blast in the capital’s Gulistan. On May 26, two people, including a female police officer, were injured when a bomb went off near a police pickup close to Malibagh intersection.
On August 31, two policemen were injured when another bomb went off at Science Lab intersection. Besides, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were recovered in the capital’s Paltan and Khamarbari areas on July 24.
“Rafique was present in four spots himself, and led the attacks,” said Monirul, adding that he had made the bombs used during the attacks at his house in Narayanganj. In a special drive, CTTC unit busted the Narayanganj facility on September 23 last year, but Rafique managed to escape.
With the duo, a total of six members of the cell have been arrested so far. Four other arrestees are: Farid Uddin Rumee -- a teacher at Ahsanullah University and brother of Rafique, Abdullah Azmir, Mehedi Hasan Tamim and Mishuk Khan. Three of them -- except Mishuk -- have already given confessional statements in court, and are in jail now.
“We will now interrogate Rafique to know activities of this cell, and check whether it has any other members or not,” said the CTTC chief.
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