Staff Reporter :
Police claimed to have arrested four militants of the banned Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) who allegedly supplied arms and bomb materials for Gulshan attack.
The arrested persons are Abu Taher, 37, Mizanur Rahman, 34, M Selim Miah, 45, and Towfiqul Islam.
A team of a Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit also recovered the prime elements of handmade grenade, 787 detonators and a nine mm pistol from their possessions, police said.
“Tipped off, a team of the CTTC unit conducted a drive in the city’s Darus Salam area around 10:30pm on Wednesday and arrested them,” said Masudur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner (Media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
All of them are the members of the banned militant outfit JMB, the police official said.
The four JMB men gathered in the capital with the arms and explosives to carry out subversive activities, Masudur said.
During primary interrogation, the four JMB men said, they are active members of JMB and they used to smuggle arms and explosives through the international border into Shibganj upazila of Chapainawabganj district, the DC said.
Mizanur Rahman alias Boro Mizan, the chief of Chapainawabganj unit of JMB, and Mizanur Rahman alias Chhoto Mizan collected the arms and explosives from several places, said Masudur quoting the arrested men.
“Chhoto Mizan collected arms, including pistols and detonators making raw materials, from them on the Chapainawabganj border. Later, he supplied those to Gulshan attack mastermind Tamim Chowdhury and Marzan,” he added.
Law enforcers suspect that they came to Dhaka with the detonators and arms following the order of JMB’s new leadership to carry out subversive activities.
Mizan was one of the main persons for collecting arms and explosives and in-charge of Chapainawabganj chapter of the militant outfit, the police official said.
The 20 hostages were brutally murdered during the siege before the commandoes stormed the popular restaurant in capital’s diplomatic zone in the morning of July 2.
