Police have detained a woman for her suspected involvement in the August 2017 blast during an anti-terror raid on a Dhaka hotel.
Humayara alias Nabila was detained late on Wednesday from the capital’s Shidheshwari area, said Deputy Commissioner Mahibul Islam Khan of the Counterterrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit.
She had allegedly financed a terror attack plan targeting National Mourning Day events at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.
It was foiled in a raid on the Hotel Olio International at Dhaka Panthapath, where a suspected militant blew himself up, according to CTTC officials.
Investigators said, Humayara was responsible for the ‘sister wing’ of the neo-JMB, a splinter of banned Islamist group Jamaa'tul Mujahideen Bangladesh.
Her husband Tanvir Karim was arrested on Nov 19 last year from Dhaka’s Gulshan over the hotel raid.
A CTTC official said after her husband’s arrest, Humayara ran terror activities at the behest of neo-JMB top leader Akram Hossain Khan Niloy.
A business graduate from the North South University (NSU), Humayara was a student at the Viqarunnissa Noon School and College. She has master’s degree from a Malaysian university.
Officials said she was radicalised while studying at NSU.
On the morning of Aug 15 last year, the counterterrorism unit and SWAT raided the Hotel Olio International at the capital’s Panthapath.
The hotel is located some 300 metres away from the museum where mourners had gathered that day to pay respects to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated with most of his family members in a military putsch 42 years ago.
As police approached the terror suspect’s room, a bomb went off causing a portion of the building’s fourth-floor wall to collapse onto the street below.
The suspect, who was later identified as Saiful Islam, was found dead in the debris on the fourth floor.
Police had said he blew himself up to avoid arrest.