‘They attacked to take away militant chief Hannan’
-- Attackers hurled several bombs at prison van -- Hand grenade among 7 bombs seized -- Prisoners were being taken back to Kashimpur jail from Dhaka A group of criminals swooped on a prison van to take away death row convict Mufti Hannan, chief of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (Huji), on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in Tongi this evening, police said. The prison van carrying Hannan came under attack at College Gate area on the highway around 5:30pm, our Gazipur correspondent reports quoting Hafizul Islam, sub-inspector of Gazipur traffic department. READ MORE: SC upholds death penalty for Mufti Hannan, 2 others A five-member police team led by an SI was leading the prison van on way to the Kashimpur High Security Central Jail from Dhaka, he said. The attackers hurled several crude bombs at the prison van, he added. READ ALSO: Mufti Hannan confessed without coercion 3 Huji militants, including its chief Mufti Abdul Hannan, were sentenced to death for carrying out a grenade attack on then UK envoy in Bangladesh Anwar Choudhury in 2004. Mostafa Kamal, 25, one of the attackers, was detained in this connection with seven crude bombs, two machetes and Tk 7500, our Gazipur correspondent reports quoting Firoz Talukdar, officer-in-charge (OC) of Tongi Police Station. The detainee, hailing from Pagli village under Tarakanda Police Station in Mymensingh, is now under custody of the police station, the OC said. He hurled a bomb targeting the van in exchange of Tk 10,000, police said quoting Kamal after a primary interrogation. The prison van was on its way to take Hannan back to the Jail after law enforcers produced him before a Dhaka court today, the police official added.
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