Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit Chief Monirul Islam has said an '"Ameer" of the new JMB group is in Bangladesh now.
The CTTC chief made the statement while briefing reporters at the Dhaka Metropolitan Police media centre, around 11:45am on Tuesday.
He said the information came up at the primary interrogation of the two suspected cell members, Farid Uddin, 27 and Mishuk Khan Mizan, 25, arrested during a drive in Narayanganj’s Fatullah on Monday.
Chief Monirul said: "The two arrestees confessed to their involvement in New JMB group where they were trying to reorganise recently.
"They have a five member group, where one is leader. However, we have news about their ‘Ameer,' whom we have been trying to identify."
The CTTC chief further said: “Farid and Mizan had been shown arrested in a case filed over a recent blast in Gulistan on April 29, where three policemen were injured. They also identified another three suspected members of New JMB group, who were directly involved with this attack.
He said during primary interrogation, these members confessed to their involvement in planning five bomb attacks in various places of Dhaka.
We also recovered some improvised explosive devices (IED) from the Narayanganj raid, which they made to cause an attack in September, he said.
"Farid and Mizan passed information about this New JMB 'Ameer'. We think they are trying to get Islamic State (IS) attention by conducting such explosive attacks," the CTTC hief added.
Chief Monirul revealed the arrestees did not receive any training in making bombs. “They used to learn how to make bombs on a trial and error process as all of them [arrestees] were engineers by profession.”
Md Musa alias Mustafizur Rahman alias Samad, one of the perpetrators of the 2005 bomb blasts, sought to strengthen the New JMB group after the death of their top leader Tamim Chowdhury.
"Musa intended to collect explosives, and form the New JMB group, however, we were able to destroy them," the CTTC chief said.
