Members of the Detective Branch (DB) of police yesterday arrested six members of a new militant group from Motijheel area in the capital.
“The militant group was planning to kill a pir (religious preacher) in Dhaka. They were taking their militant training in an area near Bangabandhu Safari Park in Gazipur and Chittagong.” said DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam.
The arrestees are Johirul Islam alias Ansar alias Churanto Lorai alias Johir, Khondokar Rajesh Sobhan alias Raju alias Kacha Morich alias Adar Bepari, Abu Bakkar Siddique alias Abir alias Moumachi alias Niyomer Oniyom alias Ek Tukro Megh alias Shada Pata, Abraham Ahmed Al-Tarek, Morshedul Islami alias King Mor Khan, Kazi Bappi Ahmed alias Sazzad alias Tarique Bin Zia alias Mollah Akhter Mohammad Monsur.
The DB men also recovered a laptop and 10 mobile phones from their possession,
Muntasirul Islam, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), said: “A team of DB (South) made the arrests of six terrorists raiding different spots of Dhaka on Wednesday night.”
Later in a press briefing, DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said: “The new militant group, Mujahid of Bangladesh started its activities in the country two years ago and has around 30 members.
“They usually invite people to namaz and later indoctrinate them to resort to the path of jihad on Facebook. They are using Facebook to communicate among themselves, to collect members and seek financial help.”
He said the militant group was planning to kill a pir (religious preacher) in Dhaka.
Monirul also said they are the followers of al-Qaeda and used the same styles like banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) for criminal activities.
The arrestees are involved in different professions. They spend a portion of their salary on living and the rest is spent on militant work.
Their big leader, Masum has already been arrested.
The arrestees were produced before the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate court with a 10-day remand prayer.
The court, however, granted a six-day remand for each of them.
