The Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) which were used against the police this year at five spots of the capital, were made in a militant hideout in Narayanganj. On Monday (Sept 23), the bomb-making laboratory was destroyed.
In an old ancestral home, the bomb-making operation used to be looked after by JMB leader Farid Uddin Rumee, a teacher of the Ahsanullah Science and Technology University in Dhaka.
From the militant den, Rumee’s wife, Jannatul Foara Anu, was also detained and a huge amount of explosives destroyed.
Head of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) Additional Commissioner of DMP, Monirul Islam, says: “The ingredients used in the bombs against the police were similar to the ones found in Narayanganj.”
There were several explosions this year. In one explosion, on Apr 29, near the Gulistan traffic box, two members of traffic police and one community policeman were injured. In another blast on May 27 AT Malibagh in a police van, three police members and a pedestrian were hurt. And on Jul 2, two bombs were discovered from Khamarbari and Paltan police boxes. On Sept 1 last, an IED exploded near the Science Laboratory police box.
IS took responsibility for the five incidents.
CTTC specialist says that all the items for making the bomb were purchased from the open market and each had a timer attached to it.
Deputy Commissioner of CTTC, Saiful Islam, says that the den was being used by members of the Neo JMB as a laboratory.
Though leading figures of Neo JMB were eliminated after the anti-militant drive following the Holey Artisan attack, there was the information of a new group forming under ‘Don Bhai’ and Abu Mohammad Al Bangali.
A group of the Neo-JMB was being led by detained Farid Uddin Rumee and Jamal Uddin. Jamal completed his education in chemical engineering from Khulna University of Science and Technology and was involved in teaching at the university. But after being sucked into the vortex of militancy, HE left academia.
Farid Uddin Rumee also joined Ahsanullah University as a lecturer after studying there. His father was the DGM of Bangladesh Bank. He rented a tin-shed house in Shehachar and had been using it as a lab by both Jamal and Farid.
A CTTC official says that Jamal is the new leader of neo-JMB and an IS video released three months ago showed some young men which included Jamal and Farid.
Also read
‘Explosives in N'ganj similar to those used in attacks on police’
'Terror hideout' cordoned off in Narayanganj