Staff Reporter :
Banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) had planned to snatch Holey Artisan prisoners in the way similar to the incident in Trishal in 2014.
RAB’s Legal and Media Wing Director Mufti Mahmud Khan said it while addressing the media on Sunday, and about the arrest of the suspected arms supplier of the attack.
According to Md Mamunur Rashid alias Ripon alias Rezaul Karim alias Reza’s confession, JMB recently had planned to carry out multiple attacks in several districts, including Dhaka and Chattogram, to instil fear into the hearts of the public and tarnish Bangladesh’s image in the world, the RAB spokesman said.
Around Tk 39 lakh, arms and ammunition led by Reza were brought from a neighboring country for the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan in 2016, he claimed.
Reza, who engaged in collecting money and supplying arms and explosives for the militant group, was a military trainer of JMB activists, he added.
Earlier on Saturday a member of the banned militant outfit was arrested from Gazipur. Reza supplied money, arms and explosives for the militant attack.
The elite force also recovered Tk 1,47,755 in cash from his procession, the RAB official said.
In the meantime, a Dhaka court on Sunday remanded Reza for five days for interrogation following a 10-day remand plea of the investigators, court sources said.
The RAB official said: “Planning to occur another such incident, the militants intended to snatch the prisoners [arrested in the Gulshan attack case], when they were being transported to court from different jails for the trial.”
Ripon, hailing from Bogra’s Nandigram upazila was the key arms and explosive supplier and financer of Gulshan café attack, according to law enforcers.
Ripon, the accused of the case filed in connection with the Holey Artisan Bakery attack, was arrested from Broad Bazar of Gazipur around 11:15pm last night, he said.
Ripon and another JMB man Shariful Islam Khaled, who were involved in the killing of Prof Rezaul Karim Siddiquee, went to India months before the Gulshan café siege possibly to ensure supply of firearms for the terror attack, according to police.
Both the JMB leaders left for India in April in 2016, days after the murder of the Rajshahi University Professor Rezaul Karim.
On February 23, 2014, armed JMB militants ambushed a prison van and snatched away three prisoners in Trishal upazila of Mymensingh. A police constable was killed as the attackers opened fire and hurled crude bombs at the prison van at Signboard point of Aminabari area.
On July 1, 2016, gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka’s Gulshan area and opened fire. A total of 22 people, including 17 foreign nationals and two policemen were killed in the attack.
