Dhaka: Five operatives of the Pakistan
based militant group JeM, including its Pakistani coordinator
in Bangladesh who was also a recruiter for operations in
India, was nabbed here on Sunday, officials said.
Of the five Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) activists, one is a
Pakistani national while the remaining four are Bangladeshi
citizens, said Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, Assistant Director of
the elite Rapid Action Batalion (RAB).
Rezwan Ahmed, 26, of Karachi, two brothers Imazuddin
alias Munna and Sadek Hossain alias Khoka, Abu Naser Munshi
and Nannu Mia alias Belal Mandol were arrested during the
special anti-militancy drive near the Dhaka College.
RAB officials said Rezwan had confessed that he was
JeM's regional coordinator and also a recruiting agent for
conducting operations in India.
Rezwan, who was fluent speaker in Hindi, Urdu, Bangla
and English, was well trained to use handguns, sniper rifles,
automatic weapons, light machine guns, heavy machineguns, RPGs
and executing operations using explosives, officials said.
They said he was also skilled in planning suicide
attacks at rail stations and trains.
The security forces seized passports, sharp weapons,
computer CPUs, different identity cards and foreign currencies
from them, Col Zia Ahsan of the RAB said.
Nannu Mia, one of the other detained militants, was
reportedly arrested in India in 1999 for his role in the
Indian airlines hijacking from Kathmandu.
RAB said they had also learnt that Nannu was
imprisoned in Guwahati for about 10 years, with more than four
militancy-related cases pending against him in different
Indian courts.
Col Ahsan said the suspects would be taken into
custody for interrogation.
JeM, founded by Maulana Masood Azhar, was responsible
for the December 13, 2001 terrorist attack on the Indian
Parliament in New Delhi.
The banned terror group was launched on January 31, 2000,
by Azhar in Karachi after he was released as part of a deal to
release Indian hostages in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, February 28, 2010, 22:09