Police: Arms used in Dhaka attack smuggled in through the border

The rifles were originally smuggled into Bihar, India via Nepal, from where they were transported into Bangladesh, said Monirul Islam, chief of police’s Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes (CTTC) unit yesterday. “We acquired this information during interrogation of JMB members who were recently arrested in North Bengal and some other districts,” he told the Dhaka Tribune. The idea of buying firearms for militants was formed after Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, the mastermind of Dhaka terror attack, joined the group, according to investigators. In fact, the formation of the new faction of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), or NEW JMB, was made possible because of Tamim who brought in a large amount of money. “Tamim collected fund using many banking channels, and he was highly capable of acquiring firearms,” Monirul said. “The Tk38 lakh that we recovered from Saiful Haque Sujon in December last year was supposed to go to Tamim, and the money came from Spain through China.” Police are now working to identify the arms importers and the financiers. “We have some information and are working to verify it and trace their real identities,” Monirul said. Meanwhile, a CTTC high official, requesting anonymity, said four or five of the financiers had already been identified and were now under surveillance. Another, CTTC high official, who also asked not to be named, said: “We also have information on militant armouries around the country. So far we have been able to recover a small number of illegal firearms, but we have increased vigilance to trace the rest of them.” Investigators also said they had identified eight or nine more militants who worked directly under Tamim in planning the Dhaka attack. “Beside Tamim, another militant played an important role in the planning of the Gulshan attack – Marjan, the youngest leader of NEW JMB. We are working to arrest him,” Monirul said. “He passed information to the attackers from outside and also published the photos of the attack on the internet.” Police are now working to find Marjan and the other militants, Monirul said. He further said Tamim’s death might have put a damper on NEW JMB’s operations, but it had yet to be destroyed. “We are not saying that we have successfully stopped all militant activities in Bangladesh, but we are hopeful to bring these activities under close monitoring.”