3 JMB men held [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

3 JMB men held

Local December 28, 2015

The detective police on Sunday said they, in a continued raid, arrested three suspected members of banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh in Chittagong and seized a US-made sniper rifle with ammunition, explosives and Bangladesh Army’s combat uniform.
After primary interrogation, the detective officials said, they found links of the three suspects with all recent attacks including slitting the throats of two caretakers at a Chittagong shrine on September 4, mugging incident in Sadarghat on September 23 and militant activities in the port city.
‘We are investigating whether they had any links with the recent twin mosques attacks in naval base in the
port city,’ said one of the deputy commissioners of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police.
The detectives said they could arrest Chittagong University’s physics students Naimur Rahman Nayan, 25, of Kurigram, Faisal Mahmud, 26, of Noakhali, and Md Shawkat Rasel, 26, of Cox’s Bazar and failed to nab their ‘regional leader’ Fardin alias Piash.
CMP commissioner Abdul Jalil Mandal said, ‘We had information that Fardin was planning to carry out suicide attack from this den. But our detectives foiled the mission.’
The detectives said they were ‘astonished’ with the seizure of United States-made MK-11, which was originally constructed to meet a requirement placed by the Navy SEALs.
MK11 Sniper Weapon System is a highly accurate and durable, precision semiautomatic sniper rifle that operates like an M16 or M4A1, and can deliver a 7.62mm round out to 1,500 yards.
‘None of our forces in the country use it. We are interrogating them about how the sophisticated rifle reached the JMB members,’ said CMP’s detective branch’s additional deputy commissioner Babul Akhter.
This is the second such operation since December 24, when the Dhaka Metropolitan Police in a 14-hour drive arrested seven suspected militants and seized huge amount of explosives from a flat in the capital’s Mirpur.
The detectives in Chittagong said on Sunday they started operation on Friday and finally raided a house at Aman Bazar of Hathazari on Sunday where Fardin alias Piash used to live along with his family introducing himself as a businessman.
Additional deputy commissioner Babul Akhter said they seized MK-11, two magazines, 252 bullets, five kilograms of explosive gel, 25 detonators, 12 sets of Bangladesh army’s combat uniforms and an extra shirt, a pair of badges in the ranks of an army major.
Babul Akhter told New Age that they on October 6 busted a JMB den at Khowajnagar area in the city and arrested five JMB members.
Upon their statement, the detectives claimed that they had arrested Naimur, Faisal and Shawkat from different areas in the city.
One of them, Shawkat had informed the investigators about the whereabouts of their leader Fardin, who fled the house before the police could reach there.
CMP commissioner Abdul Jalil Mandal said civilians would not be able to run the semi-automatic sniper rifle as it could hit the target from 1,500 yards.
The commissioner also expressed his concerns over the use of military uniforms.
The detectives said Fardin alias Piash rented the ground floor of Ishak Mia seven months ago and lived in the house with a woman, reportedly his wife.
Ishak, however, told New Age that one Nafis, around 30-year-old, rented his house some seven months ago.
But about two months ago, Ishak said Nafis went to somewhere locking the room and after one month and two weeks returned to pay the house rent. He again left keeping one of his cousins —Shawkat Rasel — in the house.
The police later on the day filed three cases — one under arms act, another under explosives substance act and rest under anti-terror prevention act — with the Hathazari police station against the arrested militant suspects and few others.