Intelligence agencies have completed an investigation on the production of explosives and its sources of financing in the country. The agencies recently submitted a report to the home ministry recommending necessary steps to check the crimes.
The report, prepared by several state intelligence agencies, mentions the names of 200 people who belong mainly to BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami but also include some businessmen.
The agencies in the report suggested that steps be taken against Jamaat-backed NGO organisations, which it alleged channel money sent from Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Qatar and some other Middle Eastern countries for these criminal activities.
A list of the 200 financers and bomb makers has been sent to the district superintendents of police and officers-in-charge of different police stations from the police headquarters asking them to take necessary steps. Officials at the police headquarters have already held several meetings with high officials to device strategies to and bring the financiers to justice.
Law enforcement agencies are keeping the financiers under surveillance to learn what they do, where they go and who they meet, sources said.
“We are in fear about the violent activities of BNP-Jamaat. They are killing innocent people. We earlier asked the law enforcers to prepare a list of bomb makers and their financiers,” Shamsul Hoque Tuku, the state minister of home affairs, told the Dhaka Tribune.
“The list prepared by intelligence officials has been handed over to police and Rab,” he said.
“Some of the names on that list has left us astonished.”
The state minister, however, refused to reveal any details about the people on the list.
He further said stern action would be taken against the criminals after investigation and the law enforcers had also been asked to check out their NGO-based activities.
Sources said most of the 200 financiers are centred in Rajshahi, Khulna, Chittagong and Sylhet. Another source from Dhaka Metropolitan Police said there were 57 political leaders and businessmen in the capital who were involved in the bomb business.
Talking with the Dhaka Tribune, a senior official from the police headquarters requesting anonymity said that the lists had the names of the financiers, their addresses, their occupations, political background, networks, income sources, case histories and how they operate the business.
“We are about to start our raid to arrest these people shortly,” he said.
The intelligence report also said there were about 50 dens in the capital where handmade bombs, grenades, Molotov cocktails, pipe and chocolate bombs were being prepared and supplied.
According to sources in the Detective Branch of Police, there were around 12 professional groups and four hundred bombers involved in the crimes.
The Detective Branch of police has identified 18 ringleaders who operate these bomb factories. The people who are involved in such businesses are well known as “cocktail team” in the underworld.
The law enforcers raided five different dens last week, recovered large amounts of explosive material and arrested some 50 bombers.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Sanwoar Hossain of DB’s bomb disposal unit told the Dhaka Tribune that they had information on such bomb making dens and they already raided several places in order to arrest the criminals.
“We are hopeful that we will be able to crack down on all other bomb factories in the capital and arrest them quickly,” he added.
Home Secretary CQK Mustaq Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune that the people who were involved in such explosion business and their financing would be brought to book.
He mentioned that anti-terrorism and money laundering acts were very strict. The law enforcers are working on it and none would get mercy from the punishment, he added.
