The Rapid Action Battalion in Narayanganj says it has arrested the southern region chief of banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Thirty-year-old Tariqul Islam, who went by the aliases Tarek, Bappi, Sakib and Nazmus Sakib, was arrested late on Friday from Narayanganj, said the elite police unit.
A meat cleaver, jihadist literature, training manuals were found on the suspected militant when he was arrested from peer no 1 near the district town, Narayanganj-based RAB 11 chief Kazi Shamser Uddin told a media call on Saturday (Mar 30).
According to the senior RAB officer, Tariqul was radicalized in 2013 after he met Jasim Uddin Rahmani at a mosque.
Rahmani, the leader of banned group Ansarullah Bangla Team, is now in jail after being convicted in the murder of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider.
“At the same mosque, he was acquainted to the then-JMB southern region chief Abdullah Al Mamun. Tariqul replaced Mamun in the organization, after he died in a shootout with police in Bagerhat in 2016,” said the RAB-11 chief.
Tariqul, who was trained in arms and explosives, moved to Dhaka after law enforcers stepped up raids to hunt terrorists, according to him.
He has been named in eight cases filed under the Anti-Terror and Explosives Acts.