RAB members yesterday arrested Harkat-ul-Jihad Al-Islami Bangladesh (Huji-B) leader Abu Bakar Siddique, sentenced to death in the Ramna Batamul bomb blast case, from the Keraniganj area.
Abu Bakar Siddique alias Hafez Selim, 35, from Barisal is also a charge-sheeted accused in the August 21 grenade attack case.
Based on information received, a RAB team arrested Abu Bakar, said Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of RAB’s legal and media wing.
Abu Bakar was a close associate of Huji-B top leader Mufti Hannan. He drew close to Hannan when he was a student of the Gowhardanga Hafizia Madrasa in Tungipara of Gopalganj, said the RAB legal wing director.
A Dhaka Court gave its verdict on the Ramna Batamul bomb blast case on June 23, 2014.
The court sentenced eight people to death and six others to life-term imprisonment in connection with the bomb blast that had killed 10 people and injured 25 on April 14, 2001.
“For the last 13 years, Abu Bakar had been hiding in different parts of the country,” said Mufti Mahmud while addressing a briefing at the RAB headquarters in the capital’s Uttara.
Mufti Mahmud said Abu Bakar got a call from an acquaintance named Kajol Ahmed on August 21 who invited him to join a programme in the capital.
Later, Abu Bakar came to the capital’s Gulistan area from Kishoreganj around noon and Kajol received him there. After that, Kajol took him to a restaurant for dinner where he met 50 more people including the then president of Bangladesh Ulama League Akther Hossain Bukhari.
After the attack, Bakar went back to Kishoreganj. He tried to leave the country several times but had failed, the RAB official said at the media briefing.
Among the 52 charge-sheeted accused in the August 21 grenade attack case, a total of 25 are now behind bars, 19 are on the run while eight are out on bail.
Abu Bakkar, however, told the reporters at the RAB headquarters yesterday that he was not involved with the grenade attack.
