Police yesterday arrested two wanted Harkatul Jihad Al Islami (Huji) operatives in the city for their suspected links to the August 21 grenade attacks on an Awami League rally in 2004 and Ramna Batamul blasts in 2001. Police arrested the two, Maulana Mohammad Monir Hossain, 35, and Maulana Mohammad Idris, 30, at around 11:00am after a raid on a student mess in Zakir Hossain Road in Mohammadpur. Police said both the arrested are active members of Huji.Sources in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said Monir Hossain is a brother of another Huji leader Moulana Abu Taher who is now on police remand for involvement in the August 21 grenade blasts case. The CID started a manhunt after Huji operations commander Mufti Abdul Hannan in his confessional statement mentioned that Monir introduced him to Moulana Taijuddin who supplied Hannan with grenades used in the August 21 blasts.
| Taijuddin who is now a fugitive, suspected to be in hiding in South Africa, is the brother of a BNP leader and a former deputy minister. |
CID Inspector Abu Hena Mohammad Yusuf, who is the investigation officer of the case, in his forwarding report said Mufti Hannan in his confessional statement recorded on November 19 last year mentioned that Monir and Idris were present in the meeting where the plan for the bomb blasts at Ramna Batamul were sketched. He asked that the arrested two be remanded for 10 days each for interrogation but the Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Al-Mamun granted them five days remand.
In his confessional statement Mufti Hannan had also said that seven Huji operatives, including two Dhaka College students, Hasan and Omar Faruq, carried out the attacks on the Pahela Baishakh celebrations at Ramna Batamul in 2001. The others are Abu Taher, Sheikh Farid, Abu Bakar, Yeahia and Abdul Hye.
Hannan had also said that the grenades used in the attack had been smuggled into Bangladesh and that one Taijuddin, owner of a wire factory at Chakbazar in Old Dhaka, supplied the grenades and bombs.