HujiB den busted in Chittagong

Members of the notorious militant group, declared banned in 2005, also chalked out plans to snatch their detained top leaders from prison van. RAB yesterday claimed that they had foiled the evil plot after busting a hideout of the banned outfit in a flat in Chittagong city’s Colonel Hat area yesterday morning. Five HujiB men including three regional commanders were arrested during the five-hour-long drive. Raiding the flat on the second floor of a three-storey under construction building of one Mukim Talukder, RAB recovered two foreign pistols, seven magazines, 167 rounds of bullets, 12 Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and huge amounts of bomb making materials from their possessions, RAB 7 Commanding Officer Lt Col Mifta Uddin Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune. The raid came only a day after the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty of HujiB top leader Mufti Abdul Hannan and two others in a case filed over the grenade attack on the then UK envoy, Anwar Choudhury, in 2004. The five arrested yesterday are Maulana Tajul Islam, Nazim Uddin, Hafez Abujafar Gifari, Nure Alam and Iftesham Ahmed, said RAB sources. “Of them, Maulana Tajul is the coordinator of Dhaka region unit and also a close associate of detained top JMB leader Mufti Mainul Islam. Hafez Gifari is the chief coordinator of HujiB in Kustia region,” told Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of Legal and Media Wing of RAB, at a press briefing in Chittagong after the drive. “Sensing the presence of RAB personnel, the militants burned down their electronic gadgets including mobile, laptops and documents,” he said. Mahmud added that Nazim Uddin was an active HujiB member, and had been in contact with top leaders Mufti Hannan and Abdur Rauf, now in jail. “RAB personnel first arrested Tajul and Nazim in possession with two firearms from the city’s AK Khan Intersection area around 5am, and later discovered the hideout after interrogating them,” Mahmud said. “After arresting the duo, RAB took them to the hideout but sensing the presence of RAB, the three others locked the door from inside and burned down their electronic gadgets,” he said. The militants rented the flat identifying them as private job holders in the middle of November. They assured the landlord of bringing their family members in this month. “HujiB was inactive for a long time but now they are trying to regroup in different areas and plotting to carry out subversive activities to prove their strength,” Mahmud said. Referring to intelligence information, he said that the regional commanders had gone to Chittagong to gear up organisational activities and planning to free their detained leaders. “During initial interrogation, the militants said that they had planned to carry out attacks on the law enforcers and loot their arms and ammunition. They also intended to attack on prison vans to snatch their leaders,” the RAB officer claimed. Lt Col Mifta said that the landlord, Mansur Alam, had fled the scene during the drive. “We have taken the militants into custody for detail interrogation. They will be handed over to Akbar Shah police station and a case will be filed,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.