Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit have raided two suspected militant dens in Narayanganj’s Fatullah area and detained three people.
The detainees are Farid Uddin Rumee, 27, his wife Jannatul Foara Anu, 22, and his brother Jamal Uddin, 25. Both Farid and Jamal are sons of former Bangladesh Bank deputy director general Joynal Abedin.
According to police, they are members of the new faction of banned militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, which is also known as New JMB.
Smoke at militant den in Narayanganj while the police diffuse the bombs on September 23, 2019 Dhaka TribuneNarayanganj police Special Branch Inspector Sajjad Rumon told Dhaka Tribune that Farid is a faculty member of Mechanical and Production Engineering Department at Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST), his wife works at Agrani Bank, while Jamal used to teach at Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (Kuet).
Fatullah Model police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Md Aslam Hossain told Dhaka Tribune that CTTC officials raided a building near Tokkar Math area in the early hours of Monday and detained the trio.
While briefing reporters from the spot at 12:30pm, CTTC chief Monirul Islam said: "Based on the information given by the trio, we raided another building in the area.
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Police officials inspecting the den after diffusing the bombs on September 23, 2019 Dhaka Tribune
We did not find anyone in the second building, however we recovered huge amount of explosives, bomb making equipment, and some identity cards from the den.”
He added: “We are working on defusing the bombs now."
Monirul said locals were evacuated from the nearby buildings.
CTTC chief Monirul Islam visits the suspected militant den at Fatullah in Narayanganj on September 23, 2019 | Dhaka TribuneStating that the arrestees are New JMB members, the CTTC chief said they have provided information about other members and they will continue drives to arrest them.
Furthermore, he said: "We have found similarities between the bombs recovered here with the ones used in recent blasts in Dhaka."
A bomb disposal unit has also entered the second militant den around 11:15am, Inspector Sajjad Rumon added.
Fire Service headquarters duty officer Lima Khanam said a fire fighting unit went to the spot around 12pm.
CTTC Deputy Commissioner (DC) Saiful Islam told Dhaka Tribune said: "Details regarding the raids will be disclosed later."
