Staff Reporter :
A list of militants held in the country’s prisons was found with ‘Swapna’, wife of Md Zakaria, arrested driver of the vehicle used to snatch three top Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants on Sunday.
Besides the JMB militants, the list also included the names of their parents and children. This has led police to believe that the banned outfit was funding families of those detained.
The information given by Zakaria led to the arrest of his 23-year old wife from Gazipur’s Sikandarpara area, said Detective Branch
(DB) Assistant Commissioner (AC) Md Rahmatullah Chowdhury.
He said, police found the list along with documents (blue books) of two cars, five cell phones, a pen drive, modem, laptop, bank ATM cards and some Islami books during a raid at Swapna’s house. The couple lived in a rented house in Gazipur, he said. Swapna, is a college student in Rajshahi. She sometimes goes there for attending classes. Swapna hails from Baikapara in Chapainawabganj. She lived in her in-law’s house in East Basabo before moving into the rented house in Gazipur.
She was taken to DB office of Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Tuesday, where she would be grilled in a joint interrogation cell, said Tongi Model Police Station SI Md Alamgir Gazi. DB police have started grilling the couple, said Rahmatullah. The handwriting on the list is that of Zakaria, he said.
Police arrested Zakaria Islam and Mohammad Rasel from Sakhipur upazila hours after the ambush for their involvement in the incident. A Tangail court has sent Zakaria to a 20 day-remand in two cases filed under the Arms and Explosives Act.
Meanwhile, police recovered a plastic bag containing firearms including six pistols, eight magazines, 41 bullets and four hand bombs from Garobazar of Ghatail upazila in Tangail district on Tuesday morning. Police believe the arms were left by fleeing JMB militants, who were snatched from police custody when being taken to Mymensingh on Sunday.
Locals found the sack around 11:00am in a bush at Garobazar area of Ghatail, which is 15 kilometres off Trishal upazila, where the prison van carrying the JMB militants was ambushed couple of days ago. “In the bag, there were six pistols, eight magazines, 41 bullets and four crude bombs,” Fazlul Kabir, officer-in-charge of Ghatail Police Station, told The New Nation.
The firearms and ammunition might have been left by the militants of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), the OC said. “The recovered arms, ammunition and bombs will be sent to the experts of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to make sure that whether those were used during the Sunday’s operation,” Hasibul Alam, Additional Superintendent of Police in Tangail told reporters.
The recovery came two days after an armed gang, in a well-orchestrated plan, ambushed a prison van and snatched away Rakib Hasan Russell alias Hafez Mahmud, Salauddin Ahmed alias Salehin, and Zahidul Islam alias “Boma” Mizan in Trishal upazila of Mymensingh.
Five hours into the snatching, police managed to recapture Rakib from Sakhipur upazila of Tangail. Rakib was killed in a shootout with police after 14 hours of his recapture.
The law enforcers are yet to track down the absconding JMB Salehin and “Boma” Mizan-who face death penalty and life term imprisonment respectively for militant activities.
