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| Bangladesh |
| Latest Bangla developments |
| 2006-03-18 |
| Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) chief Abdur Rahman has confessed before the law enforcers that the suicide bombing in Netrakona on December 8 killing eight people and injuring 50 others was in retaliation for not releasing two JMB operatives. After Netrakona police arrested JMB cadre Sanaullah on October 11 and Kawser Alam Sumon on October 13 at Mawa in Gouripur upazila of Mymensingh, the militants phoned the superintendent of police in Netrakona. They asked him to release the two immediately or face reprisal for the arrests. "As he did not release them, we decided to teach him a lesson," Samiul Alam, officer-in-charge (OC) of Netrakona Police Station, quoted the detained militant leader as saying, reports our Netrakona correspondent. Rahman said he chose to go for the attack in the constituency of State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar 'so he took notice of JMB's might and the consequence of not paying heed to its demand'. Eight people including the suicide bomber and Udichi's district unit joint convenor Khwaja Haider died and 50 others including 10 policemen were injured in the blast in front of Udichi office in Netrakona. OC Samiul and Sub-Inspector Mohammad Alauddin, who are investigating two cases filed in connection with the blast, interrogated Rahman at Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) headquarters in Dhaka on last Tuesday. The JMB chief has been made the main accused in both the cases. Rahman said the attack was a special operation and Shura member Salauddin, who still evades capture, was in charge of mounting the assault. He confessed that he had sent two well-trained suicide squad members to Netrakona for the operation. He, however, declined to divulge the identity of the two. "The first bomb went off before time near some policemen. And minutes after, the other suicide bomber carried out the attack successfully," Saimul quoted Rahman as saying. He said Mawa is the main den of militants in greater Mymensingh region and over 200 JMB operatives led by Moulana Abdur Razzak are still active there. “Although my men arrested Sanaullah and Sumon, we've failed to net the others due to non-cooperation of Gouripur police,” added the police officer. He said police will interrogate Bangla Bhai too in this connection once the doctors release him from hospital. Three more cases were filed with Raninagar Police Station in Naogaon Thursday against Bangla Bhai and his 52 accomplices, reports BDNEWS. According to first information reports (FIR) of two cases, Sufal and Sushanta of Chapta village have been missing since they were abducted by cadres of Bangla Bhai on May 12 and 13 in 2004. Fathers of the two youths filed the cases 22 months after the incidents. Rafiqul Islam of Vote village in Raninagar filed the other case against Bangla Bhai and his vigilante gang for maiming him on April 15, 2004. Meanwhile, the investigators have yet to begin quizzing Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, JMB Shura member and lieutenant of the militant chief. He is still undergoing treatment at Bangladesh Rifles hospital in Dhaka for burns and other injuries he sustained during his capture in Rampur village of Muktagachha, Mymensingh on March 6. Sources in the Rab said he will be taken to Mymensingh and produced before a court to be placed on remand. "Doctors are yet to release him. We thought he would be released by Thursday but he was not," Commander Masuq Hassan Ahmed, director of Rab Legal and Media Wing, told The Daily Star. On getting a remand order from court, members of the Task Force for Interrogation (TFI) will interrogate him at Rab-1 office in Uttara. The TFI members have been continuing quizzing Rahman under a 10-day remand, Commander Masuq added. Bangla Bhai's wife Fahima Khatun, arrested a couple of hours before the capture of his husband, was placed on a 12-day fresh remand by a Mymensingh court yesterday, reports our Mymensingh correspondent. On completion of a 10-day remand at the TFI, Fahima was produced before the court of First Class Magistrate Rokshana Tarannum. The court ordered the law enforcers to interrogate her for seven days in explosives case and five days in arms case. Both the cases were filed with Muktagachha Police Station after Rab captured Bangla Bhai and recovered huge firearms and explosives from Rampur. Police yesterday picked up Shafiqul Islam from Kautoli area of Brahmanbaria town for suspected links with militants. Shafiq was held after four JMB activists of the district, who were captured Wednesday, told interrogators that he knows a lot about JMB activities and network. The police continued interrogating the four -- Sohel, Alamgir, Arafat and Sheikh Mohammad -- on the second day of their five-day remand yesterday. Domar police of Nilphamari yesterday arrested field-level JMB activist Abdul Jalil at Pramanikpara, acting on the information obtained from two JMB activists rounded up Wednesday by the BDR, our Nilphamari correspondent adds. Nilphamari SP Shoeb Ahmed said all three arrestees have given some significant information. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |