[Bangla Daily Star] At least 20 more Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives of Indian and Pakistani nationalities are in Bangladesh to build a strong militant network here.Officials investigating the reported LeT plot to attack the Indian and US embassies in Dhaka have also gathered that the Pakistan-based militant group is recruiting cadres from Rohingya refugees in Chittagong.
An investigator requesting anonymity to speak more freely about the ongoing probe shared the information with The Daily Star yesterday.
He said of the 20 LeT operatives, some hail from Kerala and Kashmir of India and some from Pakistan. Most of them work as textile technicians here.
Detectives have also learned they receive financial backing from some contraband medicine traders in the capital's Paltan and Mitford hospital areas.
DB sources said the detained LeT men told interrogators that a Pakistani national posing as a stranded Bihari is involved in Lashkar operations here. He runs a medicine store on Topkhana Road in Paltan and makes regular contributions to the militant campaign.
Mahbubur Rahman, additional deputy commissioner of the Detective Branch (DB) of police, said they have names of some medicine traders suspected to have been providing financial assistance to the LeT men.
He however would not divulge the names for the sake of investigation.
Mahbubur said they have teamed up with other law enforcement agencies to hunt down the still-at-large LeT operatives.
They have also taken measures so none of the militants could slip out of the country.
Meanwhile, a DB team has seized a laptop, electrical circuits and several cellphone sets from the houses of detained LeT operatives Mohammad Ashraf Alia Zahid and Mohammad Monwar Ali.
The seizure was made following up information gleaned from the two arrested with another on Friday.
The three, all Pakistan nationals, were picked up from Tongi and the city's Uttara for suspected links to LeT.
Zahid and Monwar travelled between Bangladesh and Pakistan several times in last two years. They used to present themselves as tourists.
During their stay, they would often seek to have their visas extended. On failure to do so, they would get back to their country.
DB Deputy Commissioner Monirul Islam told The Daily Star that they are interrogating the detained LeT men to know whether they have suicide-squad members in Bangladesh.
Sources said the interrogators are quizzing the detainees along that line in view of the reported LeT plans to attack American and Indian embassies.
They said LeT has a history of employing suicide bombers for assaults on highly protective establishments in different countries.
Despite extensive interrogation over the last few days, DB officials have yet to know how many local youths LeT has recruited so far.
Zahid and Monwar have diploma in engineering, and are experts in producing electrical circuits, interrogators said.
The three detained Pakistanis linked to Lashkar were on a two-day remand each in DB custody.
A few months back, DB police arrested three LeT leaders of Indian descent--Mufti Obaidullah, Moulana Mansur and Emdadullah alias Mahbub--in the city.