DHAKA, 3 January 2007 — Security forces seized bomb-making material and uniforms of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) when they busted two militant dens at Mograpara in Narayanganj and Kaliakoir in Gazipur following leads from two Jamaatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB) activists arrested in Tangail on Friday, police said yesterday.
The items seized from Mograpara in Narayanganj include power gel and detonators used in preparing bombs, seven sets of black uniforms that resemble the RAB uniform, seven pairs of black boots, four masks, 26 Islamic books, one CD, some documents and a handwritten letter.
Bomb-making material recovered from a house at Shafipur under Kaliakoir in Gazipur include 21 detonators, 500 grams coal powder, transistor coil and four batteries. Besides, police arrested one person and picked up three others from Kaliakoir area for interrogation. JMB commander Hasan had rented the house three months back.
Meanwhile, the two JMB cadres, Abdur Rahman Alal alias Fahad and Saiful Islam, arrested in Tangail on Friday with four firearms, ammunition and detonators, confessed to police that they had been executing orders from JMB commanders Hasan and Rakib.
Tangail police arrested Fahad and Saiful Friday with firearms and detonators after they shot and wounded a policeman and an informant during the checking of the luggage of a passenger bus at Rabna bypass intersection on Dhaka-Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Extension Road in Tangail.
A special team from RAB headquarters and members of different intelligence agencies interrogated both the JMB members on Friday night.
The two also confessed that they had been following Hasan’s lead to break free arrested members of JMB and to launch a massive terror attack, a police official quizzing the two arrested JMB men said.
Members of RAB, police and detective branch intensified their manhunt at different places in Gazipur and Narayanganj to arrest Hasan and his aides. Hasan is the commander of Dhaka and Narayanganj district unit of the banned militant outfit, said the sources. Joydevpur police on Dec. 19 arrested Hasan’s younger brother and Tangail district commander of JMB Abdullah Taslim alias Nahid, 20.
In Narayanganj, police raided arrested JMB activist Saiful’s rented house at his birthplace Mograpara during early hours. Saiful had rented two rooms of a house of Saudi Arabia expatriate Mokhter Hossain 15 days back identifying himself as a student of Madanpur Madrasa.
