A snatcher involved in the daring attack on a prison van and the escape of three condemned JMB militant members has been detained in Tangail.
Zakaria, 28, was held from Takkarchala area (border of Mirzapur and Sakhipur upazilas) on Sunday afternoon hours after the attack on the prison van, Tangail police acting superintendent Hasibul Alam confirmed.
Law enforcers recovered a pistol, five rounds of bullets and five bombs from his possession.
Assailants attacked a prison van in Trishal upazila, Mymensingh and snatched away three Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants. One policeman died in the attack.
Two of the militants, SalauddinSalehin and RakibHasan, are death row convicts while the other, bomb specialist Mizan,is sentenced for life.
The snatchers were speeding on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in Sakhipurupazila when they rammed into a CNG-run auto-rickshaw near Proshika office.
A commotion arose in the area and the three militants escaped in the confusion, Shakhipur police station Officer-in-Charge MokhlesurRahman said.
Locals nabbed Zakaria, son of late AzaharHossain from Chapainawabganj, and handed him over to police, he added.
“He is one of the snatchers,” the OC confirmed.
The incident took place weeks after the issue of militancy surfaced anew in Bangladesh with an audio clip of the “al-Qaeda” calling Muslims to wage Jihad against anti-Islamist forces.
