Bangladesh law enforcers claimed to have arrested six people, including “top JMB men” and seized “a sack full” of grenades and suicide vests during a high-profile raid in Dhaka on Thursday.
olice said at least three of the detainees were militants of the banned radical group, Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). However, the identities of the nabbed persons are yet to be disclosed.
Exchange of fire
During the televised broad daylight raid, the JMB militants fired on security forces and lobbed locally made grenades from an apartment on a six-storey building in Dhaka’s Mirpur area.
But the law enforcers stormed the building after engaging the militants for a few hours. Police also evacuated residents of other apartments in the building during the raid.
The suspected militants rented the house in guise of college students six months ago.
Joint Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Monirul Islam, said they got information about the “JMB den” from an arrestee. He said all of those detained, including the one arrested on Wednesday, have been taken to the Detective Branch headquarters for questioning.
The explosives, including locally made grenades, seized on Thursday are similar to those that were used in the Old Dhaka bombings in October on a Shia Muslim assembly.
The raid was conducted a day after a Pakistani diplomat at the high commission in Dhaka was withdrawn by Islamabad. Fareena Arshad, the second secretary (political) in Pakistan High Commission, left for home on Wednesday.
