Staff Reporter :
Police have arrested five suspected Islamist militants believed to be plotting attack on New Year celebrations.
The five are reportedly members of a faction of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bang-ladesh (JMB), which engineered an attack on a cafe in Dhaka in July in which 22 people were killed, most of them being foreigners.
The JMB operatives were nabbed from Dhaka’s Darus Salam area on Tuesday.
They were planning to attack the New Year’s festival,” Monirul Islam, Head of the counter-terrorism police unit” told a news conference.
He said police also seized 30kg explosives from the suspected JMB militants.
“In primary interrogation, the militants admitted that they had planned to carry out attacks on the 31st night’s programme” said Monirul.
According to him, Md Riaz alias Engineer alias Rakib is the leader of the group, reports Bangla Tribune.
The other accused are Md Abu Bin Sayeem alias Bappi alias Opu, Kazi Abdullah Al Osman alias Ahsan, Md Sohag alias Chairman and Md Mamun alias Himel.
