Police raid on a suspected extremist den led to the arrest of a couple with a kid and seizure of a huge quantity of bomb-making materials at Sitakunda in Chittagong on Wednesday afternoon.
Police raid on a suspected extremist den led to the arrest of a couple with a kid and seizure of a huge quantity of bomb-making materials at Sitakunda in Chittagong on Wednesday afternoon.
Operation to bust another ‘hideout’ in the area was going on till late into the night, with local people saying they heard sounds of big explosions.
Police suspected that three Jama’at ul Mujahideen Bangladesh operatives were inside the second ‘hideout’ which they kept cordoned until 9:00pm and were trying to evacuate families staying on the ground floor of the two-storey building.
‘They are involved with JMB. We traced them in the midst of our continued drives based on the statements of youths we captured in Comilla recently [on March 7],’ said Chittagong range deputy inspector general Shafikul Islam, who was leading the latest drive.
Police officials said they were on hunt for the couple.
‘We captured a truck driver who had carried goods for the couple. And, finally we found the couple,’ said Shafikul.
Sitakunda police station inspector (investigation) Mozammel Hoque sustained injuries during the operation in the second ‘hideout’, police said.
Landlord of the first house and his friend said they captured the extremist couple with their kid, and found a pistol and a huge quantity of circuits used to prepare time-bombs in their house on Wednesday afternoon.
They handed over the couple, who produced fake national identification cards, with their child to police later.
Following the arrest at Shadhon Kuthir, owned by Suvash Chandra Das, at Lamar Bazar, they said, police launched a raid on another two-storey house called Chayaneer at Premtala in College Road area, where police claimed three others suspected militants took shelter.
A witness, Sunand Bhattacharya Sagar, said his friend Suvash requested him to check some devices collected from the house of the couple.
‘Local mechanics said the devices are basically “timer” used in the circuits to control time,’ he said.
Suvash then identified anomaly in the national identification cards which the tenants submitted to them during renting the house on the ground floor of his two-storey building on March 4.
Suvash and his family asked their tenant to leave the house immediately after he found the couple dealing with electronic devices although they rented house identifying themselves as ‘garment trader.’
Sunand said Suvash was dubious about couple who always kept their door and windows shut.
‘We went there to ask the couple to leave the house without any delay. The couple kept their door closed which we broke and asked them to leave immediately. The man was leaving a large backpack. I jumped at him as there was pistol,’ said Sunand.
‘We could capture him and Suvash’s wife called the police in the meantime. The woman was captured by our wives,’ Sunand stated.
The family handed over the couple to police, who led another raid nearby based on their information. The land lord told police that two youths left the house in the morning.
During the second raid at Chayaneer, the police said several hand-made bombs were hurled targeting the police, leaving Sitakunda police station inspector (investigation) Mozammel Hoque injured.
Until 9:15pm, the police kept the building cordoned as additional police were called in.
Police had conducted series of raids in the Chittagong and its adjacent areas following the capture of a retired army officer’s missing son Ahmed Azwat Imtiaz Talukdar Ami, who left house in Dhaka on February 29, 2016, and Mahmudul Hasan, on March 7 during a regular check on a bus on Chandina highway in Comilla.
Police officials said that the two suspects were members of banned Islamist outfit Jama’at ul Mujahideen Bangladesh faction coordinated earlier by Bangladeshi-Canadian Tamim Ahmed Chowdhur, who was killed along with two others in a police operation in Narayanganj in August 27, 2016.
According to terrorism monitoring agency Site Intelligence group, Tamim was Islamic State fighter who worked in Bangladesh.
Based on information of captured Hasan, the police said on March 8 that they seized huge quantity of explosives, including 29 grenades, from a rented house at Mirsarai in Chittagong which was rented by a couple with a child.
Police said the couple also introduced themselves as ‘garment trader.’
The couple had fled the house in Mirersarai few days before the police conducted the raid.
Source: New Age