A hideout of outlawed Islamist militant organisation Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) was unearthed by police in Rangpur town in the early hours of yesterday. Huge quantity of bomb making materials, explosives and documentary evidences were also recovered from the place. Rangpur police said the JMB high-ups had been using the hideout as a control room for carrying out terrorist activities in different districts of the North Bengal.Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of Nilphamari and Rangpur police along with a team of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) went to Mohadevpur, a comparatively silent area in Rangpur town in the early hours of yesterday. The joint team led by Nilphamari police super Shoaib Ahmed raided into a four-storeyed house there after midnight. Breaking the lock of a room at the second floor of the building, police found huge quantity of bomb-making equipment, circuits, wires, detonators, several walkie-talkies, gun powder, firearms, ramdas, chapatis, knives, mobile phone SIM cards, a computer, CDs, audio cassettes, and quite a large number of Islami books and written formulas of making bombs.
| Chapatis? I've always liked chapatis. I've never seen them explode, though... |
Police said Abdul Awal had lived in the house with his family for several days before his arrest in Thakurgaon. It is learnt that one Rafiqul Islam rented the house on September 28 last introducing himself as a fruit trader to the house-owner Zahirul Huque. Later on October 24, Rafiqul Islam brought Abdul Awal and his wife to the house introducing them as his brother-in-law and sister. Rafique escaped from the house several days ago secretly and telling nothing else to the house-owner. Since then he has been missing.
Following the raid into the house, panic gripped entire Mohadevpur area. A large contingent of police and RAB has been deployed in and around the house. Following the raid into the house, police super Shoaib Ahmed told journalists that they were confirmed that Abdul Awal and his family members had lived in the house for a couple of days. He said the militants might have been hatching a plan to carry out fresh attacks sitting in that particular house. However, they had escaped from the house before the raid by police. The Nilphamari police super also said that police might be able to get valuable information about the JMB leaders, their networks and future plans after examining the recovered documents, watching CDs and hearing audio cassettes.
Meanwhile, Tanveeruzzaman alias Salman alias Murad, a member of suicide squad of JMB, who was arrested in Panchagarh several days ago, gave confessional statement to a local court in Panchagarh under the Section 164 confessing his involvement in August 17 bomb blasts in the district.
