Police yesterday seized a huge cache of grenades and explosive materials from the Chittagong house of two militant suspects, arrested over Tuesday’s attack on a police checkpoint in Comilla.
On information gleaned from the two — Mahmud Hasan, 24, and Jasim, 19 — law enforcers raided the house on the ground floor of a two-storey building at Mirsharai municipality around 11:00pm on Tuesday.
The drive continued overnight and ended around 4:30pm yesterday, our Chittagong office said, citing police.
The seized items are 29 grenades, huge bomb-making materials, including 280 packets of metal balls (each pack contains 100 balls) and 40 packets of explosive gel, and nine machetes. Five black panjabis and a banner inscribed with the word “Allahu” in Arabic were also found.
The grenades were locally made with high explosives, Nur-e-Alam Mina, Chittagong superintendent of police, told The Daily Star.
The arrested are members of militant outfit “Neo JMB,” said Mohibul Islam, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit.
“They are mid-level leaders of Neo JMB. They assembled the explosives and bomb-making materials for large-scale subversive activities,” said another CTTC official who participated in the drive.
The recovery comes amid law enforcers’ claims that the group is on back foot following some preemptive drives in which some of its top leaders have been killed or arrested. Those killed include Bangladesh-born Canadian citizen Tamim Chowdhury, said to be the chief coordinator of the group.
Briefing journalists around 1:30pm, the SP said it was Hasan who rented two flats at the building on February 1, introducing himself as a clothes trader at Jorarganj on Chittagong-Dhaka Highway. Jasim used to stay with him.
Once inside, law enforcers found no furniture in either of the flats.
The grenades were defused by the bomb disposal unit of Chittagong Metropolitan Police. Later both the flats were sealed, the SP added.
Maynul Islam Musa, a key leader of the outfit who escaped arrest during a drive at the capital’s Ashkona on December 24 last year, used to visit the house, said a CTTC official, asking not to be named.
During interrogation, Hasan and Jasim gave misleading information about their identity and addresses. For example, Hasan told police that he was from Patiya upazila in Chittagong. But police found it to be false, said the SP.
Building owner Md Redwan, 45, said that while renting the flats Hasan said he and his brother would live in one flat while his sister, her husband and their four-year-old child in the other.
Redwan, also a former joint general secretary of Mirsharai municipal BNP, said he sometimes saw Hasan’s “sister” and her “husband”.
“But they remained inside the house most of the time … I often talked to Hasan…he told me he was from Lohagara upazila in Chittagong.”
During one conversation, Hasan told Redwan that he would bring his wife to the flat in March.
On February 27, Hasan’s sister, her husband and their kid left their flat, said Redwan, adding, “The last time I spoke with him was on Monday when I gave him electricity bill.”
Then around midnight on Tuesday, police knocked on his door and asked him to open the two flats Hasan rented. At the time, police closed the doors of the five other flats from outside and opened those in the morning, said Redwan and a tenant.
Police took Redwan for questioning around 11:00pm.
On Tuesday, police came under a crude bomb attack when they stopped a bus at Kutumbopur checkpoint around 11:30am. The bomb did not explode and no one was hurt.
The law enforcers opened fire, injuring one. He was identified as Jasim. Locals caught Hasan and beat him up when he was trying to flee.
A backpack, containing several handmade bombs, was seized from Hasan’s possession.
The two were later detained.
TWO CASES FILED: Police yesterday filed two cases — one over the recovery of the grenades and explosives and the other over the attack on law enforcers.
The first case was filed with Mirsharai police against eight people, including Hasan, Jasim and Musa, said Shairul Islam, officer-in-charge of the police station.
But he declined to disclose the identity of the other five. Another cases was filed with Chandina police in Comilla against Hasan and Jasim for attacking the police, said Comilla SP Shah Abid Hossain. http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/neo-jmb-den-busted-ctg-1373152
Comments are closed.