Law enforcers in their hunt especially for the two absconding Majlish-e-Shura members of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) ran massive raids in Brahmanbaria and Sherpur yesterday and arrested six JMB operatives, including the outfit's Sherpur commander. On information that JMB Shura member Salahuddin was hiding in Brahmanbaria, the joint forces of police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) conducted the five-hour raid at different points of the district as of 9:00 last night. Three JMB activists arrested in Brahmanbaria admitted that they had carried out bomb blasts at five places in the town on August 17 last year as part of the outfit's countrywide bomb attacks.The Rab, which earlier arrested JMB chief Abdur Rahman, his closest aide Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, JMB's military unit chief Ataur Rahman Sunny and Shura member Hafiz Mahmud, said they intensified intelligence and operational work to arrest the fugitive Shura members--Salahuddin and Khaled Saifullah. "We have spread our intelligence network all over the country besides strengthening our operation to arrest Salahuddin and Saifullah and other JMB leaders," Commander Mashuq Hassan Ahmed, Rab Legal and Media Wing director, told The Daily Star yesterday.
The investigators, meantime, said from now on they will feed the media with information related to operations only as they have instructions from the government top level not to disclose the findings of interrogation of the top JMB leaders. The law enforcers also prevented photojournalists from taking photographs of the arrested JMB men during and after the operation in Brahmanbaria. The law enforcers are yet to begin interrogation of Bangla Bhai who is undergoing treatment for burn and splinter injuries he had received during his capture on March 6 in Mymensingh. Before starting the interrogation, the investigators will have to produce the militant before the court and obtain remand order.