Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on Sunday claimed it had foiled a plan of massive subversive acts through arresting three suspected saboteurs along with high explosives, one bicycle bomb, petrol bombs and crude bombs from different parts of the city early Sunday.
Briefing reporters at the RAB-2 office in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area on Sunday afternoon, Director (Legal & Media) of RAB headquarters Commander Mufti Mahmood Khan said the saboteurs used a bicycle to bring high power explosives to the capital from Khulna amid high surveillance of the law enforcement agencies.
They had planned to carry out acts of sabotage targeting important establishments in the capital, Mufti Mahmood said. Tipped off, a RAB-2 team arrested Rakibul Islam Mondal alias Soshi, 25, from Karnaphuli Garden City Shopping Complex at Kakrail around 1:45am and recovered a bicycle loaded with high explosives. The explosives were kept inside pipes of the cycle in a unique way.
Acting on his statement, the elite force conducted a drive at a flat of Kaltabazar under Sutrapur Police Station and arrested two Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal leaders-Md Aminul Islam Rana, 30, and Riajul Islam Riaj-at about 4:45 am.
They also recovered 58 crude bombs, one pipe bomb, 48 petrol bombs, 500 grams of sulphur and other materials kept there for using in carrying out subversive activities, the RAB director said.
During a preliminary interrogation, the arrestees revealed that they had been carrying out acts of sabotage in the city’s Gulshan, Badda, Motijheel, Karwan Bazar and Dhanmondi areas following instruction from Anisur Rahman Khokon, former organising secretary of the JCD, the student body of BNP, during the countrywide ongoing blockade and hartal.
Rana and Riaj used to hire the Titumir College unit JCD men for unleashing the subversive activities, said Mufti Mahmood.
As the law enforcement agencies intensified their vigilance, Rana brought the explosives from Khulna hiding those in pipes of the bicycle in a unique way through a courier service. He used the address of Rakib as the destination.
“But the intelligence vigilance system foiled their plan to carry out massive acts of sabotage the capital,” the RAB official said. The elite force was trying to arrest the mastermind, Anisur Rahman Khokon, he added.
