Another suspect held; Mufti Hannan remanded

Shahadat Ullah Jewel, convenor of Narayanganj Swechchhasebak Dal, volunteers' wing of BNP, was arrested yesterday for his suspected involvement in the August 21, 2004 grenade assault on an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue.
Meanwhile, Mufti Abdul Hannan, leader of Harkatul Jihad Al Islami (Huji) and the confessed plotter of the Ramna Batamul carnage, was placed on a three-day remand yesterday in connection with a case filed after the blast.
Jewel was arrested from his Mission Para residence in Narayanganj town in the afternoon by a team of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab-11) as Huji leader Mufti Hannan in his confessional statement said Jewel was involved in the August 21 grenade attack that killed 24 people and maimed over 300 others, reports our Narayanganj correspondent quoting Rab sources.
Local sources said Jewel unleashed a reign of terror in Narayanganj during the rule of four-party alliance government. He is the younger brother of Mominullah David who was killed in a crossfire between Rab and his accomplices during the period of the same government.
Later in the evening Rab handed Jewel over to Criminal Investigation Department (CID) -- the investigators of the case. He was taken to the CID office at Malibagh for interrogation.
In Dhaka, the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Al-Mamun granted the three-day remand for interrogating Mufti Hannan after investigation officer (IO) of the case Inspector Abu Hena Mohammad Yusuf of CID appealed for seven days' remand, reports our correspondent.
The same court also placed Maulana Abu Taher, another plotter of the blast, on a five-day remand in the same case against the IO's appeal for ten days' remand.
On April 14, 2001 during the Bangla New Year celebration of Pahela Baishakh at Ramna Batamul, bomb blasts claimed ten lives, injuring numerous others.
Both Mufti Hannan and Maulana Taher were shown arrested yesterday in the murder case that was filed after the blasts. A second case was filed under Explosives Substances Act.
Hannan had earlier been remanded for several days in different phases for interrogation in connection with the case under Explosives Substances Act.
CID officials said Hannan and Taher would be quizzed in front of other two suspected perpetrators of the blast.
Active Huji operatives Monir Hossain and Idris Ali, the two other suspects in the Ramna Batamul blast case, are currently on five days' remand. They are now being interrogated at the Task Force Interrogation (TFI) cell. Idris is Taher's brother while Monir is Taher's brother-in-law.
CID Inspector Abu Hena Mohammad Yusuf, the IO of the case, in his forwarding report said Mufti Hannan was the main planner of the Ramna Batamul bombings and Taher was present during the plotting of the attack.
Mufti Hannan in his confessional statement given earlier had said that seven Huji operatives, including two Dhaka College students -- Hasan and Omar Faruq -- carried out the attacks on the Pahela Baishakh celebration at Ramna Batamul in 2001. The others are Abu Taher, Sheikh Farid, Abu Bakar, Yahya and Abdul Hye.
On November 19 last year Mufti Hannan confessed to plotting and leading several other gruesome grenade attacks including those on the Udichi programme in Jessore and the British high commissioner in Sylhet.
The Huji leader also admitted to planting a 76-kg bomb at Kotalipara in Gopalganj near a meeting venue of then prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and launching bomb attacks on Sylhet City Corporation mayor on December 2, 2005, a rally of Awami League (AL) leader Suranjit Sengupta in Sunamganj on July 21, 2001 and on AL leader Jebunnesa in Sylhet.