Thirteen people, including seven Islami Chhatra Shibir activists, were arrested carrying explosives in Chittagong in separate drives by personnel of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Hathazari police station yesterday.
The law enforcers found 24 petrol bombs, four crude bombs, lethal arms and bomb-making materials in the arrestees’ possession.
In Hathazari, following a tip-off, police nabbed seven Shibir activists – namely Khairul Amin, 23, Abdul Malek, 19, Mahmudul Hasan, 24, Sujayet Hossain, 23, Nurul Islam, 21, Mainuddin, 24, and Idris, 18 – with 15 petrol bombs, two crude bombs, four bottles of petrol and other bomb-making materials from different areas of the upazila from the early hours until midday yesterday.
The arrestees were planning to commit violence in Hathazari. They have been involved in recent subversive acts in the area as well, said Md Ismail Hossain, OC at Hathazari police station.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Additional Commissioner (Crime and Operation) Banaz Kumar Majumder of Chittagong Metropolitan Police said: “The miscreants who conduct the violent acts have spread around the city; so we will continue the drives to arrest them.”
Meanwhile in the BGB drive, a team of BGB members following a tip-off raided Railway Colony at Tiger Pass area in the city around 12:30am and arrested six persons – Jahangir Alam, 38, Osman Gani, 30, Abul Kalam, 40, Harun Miah 18, Sharif Khan, 35, and Munna, 33 – with nine petrol bombs, two crude bombs, two cleavers, seven machetes, nine iron pipes, two rolls of tapes and rope in their possession, said Major Sabbir Ahmed, additional director (administration) of BGB’s southeast region headquarters in the port city.
“They arrested were planning to commit sabotage acts in the city around 2am, but we were able to thwart them with our rapid drive,” the BGB official said at a press conference at the headquarters around 11:30am.
The arrested had been involved in other recent sabotage activities in the city, where they supplied explosives to the miscreants in exchange of money, Major Sabbir said.
Major Tanvir Mahmud, additional director at the BGB’s 28 Battalion, said the arrestees chose shanty areas to meet up and chalk out their plans in order to deflect police from finding out their whereabouts.
