Detectives yesterday arrested two journalists in the Mymensingh city for their involvement with illegal arms trading.
Sheikh Mehedi Hasan alias Nadim, 32, managing editor of local daily Dainik Jahan, and Rasel Miah, 25, his assistant, were arrested in the Maskanda BSCIC industrial area in the city in the early hours yesterday.
Police detectives seized two foreign pistols, three Chinese rifles, 20 locally-made swords, several locally-made sharp weapons, six rounds of imported bullets and a huge cache of weapon-making materials from Nadim’s residence near the newspaper office.
It is believed that Nadim had been running a weapon-making workshop under the cover of his newspaper business. However, police could not immediately tell where they used to bring their raw materials from or if there were more workers in the workshop.
Among the recovered materials there were rifle butts and barrels, from which police suspect that they made firearms in the workshop as well. However, the seizure list does not include any locally-made firearms.
Detective officer Emarat Hossain Gazi said they began the four-hour drive around 2am yesterday after receiving information from a secret source about the arms den.
He also said the arrestees have already confessed their involvement with arms trading and said they used to sell the weapons to local criminals. A case had been filed under the arms act with the Kotowali model police station in the city, he added.
Violating a recent High Court order, detectives brought the two alleged arms traders in front of media in their office yesterday.
Nadim’s mother Rebeca Yasmin, editor of the newspaper, said her son had fallen prey to a conspiracy.
She told reporters that she was surprised to see police displaying firearms at the press conference because they had only seized sharp weapons during the raid.
However, their neighbours told the Dhaka Tribune that they were not surprised to see Nadim getting involved with the illegal trade because he was a rough man.
His father Sheikh Habibur Rahman was a respected journalist in the area and the founder of Dainik Jahan, which used to be a popular local newspaper.
Neighbours also said that Nadim became the managing editor after his father died in 2012 and the newspapers has since been experiencing a downfall.