 Militant kingpin Abdur Rahman, pinned down by law enforcers at an East Shaplabagh hideout in Sylhet City since Tuesday night, refused to surrender as at 1:30am today.
| Fox News just announced he's in custody... |
While altercating with the blockading law enforcers led by Rapid Action Battalion at 4:00am yesterday, the Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh supremo said he would rather commit suicide than surrender.
| Guess he changed his mind, huh? |
Lashing out at the police operation, Rahman, called Shaekh or spiritual leader by his followers in reverence, said he would not talk with anyone except State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar and asked the law enforcers to contact him.
| "I wants me mout'piece, coppers!" |
After that exchange of words at 4:00am, he made no further response to the law enforcers, who went on asking him to surrender again and again.
| "Da jig's up, Abdur! Drop the artillery an' come out witcher hands up!" |
However, his wife Nurjahan Begum Rupa, daughter Afifa Rahman, three sons and a grandson came out of the house with the poetic name Surya Dighal Bari yesterday noon and surrendered to the police.
| "We're comin' out! He's crazy!" |
The raiding party later persuaded Nurjahan into requesting her husband to surrender, but to no avail.
| "Give up, Abdur! Think of the children!" |
The JMB chief, who has a Tk 50 lakh bounty on his head, warned he has a large number of powerful explosives in his possession. Eight explosions were also heard from the house, but it could not be known whether there was any casualty. Rab intelligence chief Lt Col Gulzar Uddin Ahmed told The Daily Star last night they reckon two JMB operatives, identified later as Moijul and Hanif, were with Rahman in the house.
| "Boss! Dey got us surrounded!" |
Over a thousand-strong force drawn from Rab, Bangladesh Rifles and the police was besieging the house. The law enforcers also had been trying to flush out the Islamist militant linchpin and his accomplices by streaming water and lobbing teargas shells into the house through a hole drilled in the roof until 8:00pm.
Rab sources said in the beam of a flashlight through that hole they saw a network of wires coming out of two bags placed behind two doors. They suspect the entire house is probably booby-trapped. They also saw something wrapped in a quilt on a bed but were not sure whether it was a man or an explosive device. At quarter to midnight, Rab Director General Abdul Aziz Sarker told The Daily Star over telephone that they would refrain from breaking into the house at night. They want to do it in daylight. Thousands of locals thronged the area and gathered around the sealed-off place to witness the imminent arrest of the mastermind behind all the bomb attacks in the country since the August 17 near-simultaneous bomb strikes across the country last year.
"Peanuts! Popcorn! Cracker Jacks! Get 'em right here!"
"Programs! Getcher programs!" |
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