Law enforcement agencies have busted a den of banned radical Islamist outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team in the capital’s Mohammadpur area and discovered large cache of bombs and explosives.
The discovery was made by a drive of DB police and DMP’s newly formed Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit, also known as CT, early Saturday.
Confirming the recovery CT Additional Commissioner Monirul Islam said his unit and DB police arrested alleged Ansarullah Bangla Team members Kamal alias Shahin and Shah Alam alias Salauddin from Badda around 10pm Friday.
On information extracted from Salauddin, they raided a flat on the top floor of a five-storey building in Nabodoy Housing area at midnight and found the bombs and explosives. Salauddin and two others had rented the flat one and half months ago to use it as their den.
The team also raided another den of ABT at Ashkona of Dakkhin Khan on Friday midnight. Jihadi books, sharp weapons, bullets and magazines from the spot.
The team started the drive again in Mohammadpur den on Saturday morning and the drive was going on as of 5:30pm.
“We will continue the drive as huge cache of bombs have been found at three rooms of the flat,” Monirul said.
He added that the bombs were found at the false ceiling of the rooms.
In the morning, they along with a bomb disposal team started disposing bombs following evacuating the whole building. Meanwhile, gas and electricity connection of the house were disconnected as well, said the CT chief.
CT Additional Commissioner Monirul Islam termed the bombs very powerful with the capacity to demolish a building.
Monirul said the Badda den was Ansarullah Bangla Team’s headquarters and Mohammadpur den was their bomb making factory.
“We have collected samples from the two dens that will be sent for DNA sampling to identify the criminals,” he added.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of DB’s bomb disposal unit Sanowar Hossain said the explosives recovered from the ABT den weigh about 10 to 15 kilograms.
He said the law enforcers recovered six hand grenades and two saucepan bombs and several bombs inside tennis balls.
“Of the explosives, some 3 to 4 kilograms were so powerful that if those were blasted within 30 to 40 yards, about 100 to 150 people could have been killed,” Sanowar added.
In response to a query whether the bombs have similarity with those found at Hussaini Dalan attack, he said only two to three bombs were similar to those bombs.
He said: “ABT had used machete to attack people but it is first time they are making bombs.”
During a briefing, Monirul Islam said police were raiding different areas of the capital along with the two detained members of ABT.
Replying to a query whether the ABT men has plan to carry out subversive acts, Monirul said: “We are interrogating them. Details will be known after the interrogation.”
He also informed that the law enforcers earlier recovered two to three categories of bombs but this time they found five categories of bombs at the ABT den.
Besides, the team detained 11 persons with illegal VoIP equipment from the opposite flat of the ABT den during the drive on Friday night.
Source: bdnews24
