JMB man killed ‘in blast’ while in police custody in Bangladesh

An operative of banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh was killed, while in custody of the detectives, in a grenade explosion in the port city early yesterday.

Chittagong Metropolitan Police identified the 22-year-old, Taufique-ul Islam alias Javed alias Rana, as a commander and chief of the explosive division of Chittagong JMB. He hailed from Betoir under Katiyadi Police Station in Kishoreganj district.

After his arrest on Monday evening, Javed confessed to hiding grenades in Kuaish area under Bayezid Police Station, said CMP Additional Commissioner AKM Shahidur Rahman at a press conference at Chittagong police headquarters. 

A team of Detective Branch took him along to the area to find out the grenades. As the law enforcers reached the spot, an associate of Javed lying in wait in the dark hurled a grenade towards them, the CMP official claimed.

The bomb went off injuring Javed and three policemen. The injured were rushed to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, but doctors there declared the JMB man dead, Shahidur said.

The incident took place around 4:45am, said Kushum Dewan, deputy commissioner of Chittagong DB, over the phone.

The four injured in the blast were brought to CMCH around 5:45am, said nayek Hamidur Rahman of CMCH police camp.

Javed received severe injuries to his neck and chest. The policemen -- sub-inspectors Liakat and Ilias and constable Faisal -- suffered splinter injuries to their hands and legs and were released after primary treatment, Hamidur said.

They were later admitted to Dampara Policeline Hospital, he added.

However, when The Daily Star contacted the hospital, its emergency nursing constable Md Alamgir said none of the three had received any primary treatment or got admitted there until 5:00pm.

In reply to a query at the press conference, DB Additional Deputy Commissioner Babul Akhter said the police could not locate exactly where they were attacked due to darkness.

“We stopped before Ananya Residential Area on the Oxygen-Kuaish Road and Javed was guiding us to the spot where grenades had been kept. Suddenly we got attacked,” he said at the conference.

Asked if they could see anybody flee the scene, DB Sub-inspector Santosh Chakma who was in the drive said it was too dark to see anyone, and that they went there using torchlight.

Javed had been arrested at a flat at Khowajnagar in a drive conducted by DB upon information gleaned from four other detained JMB men, police said.

CMP officials at yesterday's press conference claimed that they had found involvement of JMB men, including the four detainees, in two incidents of murder.

Of the detainees, Md Sujan alias Babu participated in the killing of pir (religious instructor) Rahamat Ullah, popularly known as Lyangta Fakir, and his assistant Khadem Abdul Kader at a shrine at Bangla Bazar of Bayezid on September 4, said CMP Additional Commissioner Devdas Bhattacharya.

Babu, a truck driver from Jhenaidah, confessed to killing the duo for what he said was their anti-Islamic activities, Devdas added.

Another detainee Bulbul Ahmed Sarkar alias Fuad confessed to his involvement in snatching money from the manager of a dealer company at Majhirghat on the night of September 23, DB official Bulbul said. Two others who were with Fuad were killed on the spot in the explosion of a hand grenade thrown by one of them.

They were Robiul and Rafik, of JMB, Fuad told the police.