4 JMB Militants Allegedly Responsible for Dhaka Attack Arrested

The four militants were arrested in a building in Gazipur which was allegedly used to recruit new militants.

Bangladeshi soldiers during the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery on Dhaka on 2 July 2016. (Photo: AP)

Four Islamist militants of the banned homegrown Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) group, including its top regional head, were arrested on Thursday. Authorities claim that these are the men behind the Dhaka attack.

Security forces had been looking for JMB hideouts since the 1 July attack on Dhaka’s Holey Artisan Bakery that killed 22 people, including an Indian girl.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) raided a hideout of militant outfit JMB in Gazipur’s Tongi on Thursday morning and arrested the four militants.

Mahmudul Hassan Tanvir, the ‘Amir’ of the group’s southern region was among the arrested persons, the RAB spokesperson said. The other three have been identified as Ashiqul Akbar Abesh, Najmus Shakib, and Rahmatullah Shuvo.

RAB’s media wing Director Mufti Mahmud Khan said a huge quantity of weapons, ammunition and bomb-making material were also recovered from the house.

Khan said the RAB swung into action after receiving a tip-off that the four were present in a building in Gazipur where they had taken refuge being Eid during Ramadan. The house was used for training JMB recruits, he added.

He said eight bombs and bomb-making material, a pistol, a magazine, more than 100 rounds of ammunition, eight machetes, along with some jihadi literature have been seized from the house.

(With inputs from PTI.)