Dhaka: Bangladesh's banned Harkatul Jihad
(HuJI) 'most wanted' chief Sheikh Mohammad Farid was arrested
by elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion from the capital's
suburbs of Tongi.
"We arrested him (Farid) last night after 48 hours of
extensive manhunt," RAB spokesman Commander M Sohail told
newsmen at a press briefing. He was nabbed from Tongi near
capital Dhaka.
Sohail said the 47-year old extremist was steering the
HuJI for the past several years but RAB got clues leading to
his arrest from confessional statements of two other militants
arrested earlier this week.
Farid is wanted in four specific cases of 1999 attack
on a Udichi concert in Jessore, 2001 attack on Baishakhi
festival at Ramna Batmul, August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an
Awami League rally and the case of Kotalipara bomb implant
targeting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her 1996-2001
tenure.
The RAB spokesman said during initial interrogations,
Farid claimed he was personally familiar with al Qaeda chief
Osama Bin Laden as he had joined the Afghan resistance against
the then Soviet occupation and the armed warfare against the
Burmese junta siding with the extreme righting factions of
Rohingya outfits.
The RAB is set to produce him before a court tomorrow
with remand prayers for further interrogations.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, April 28, 2011, 00:20