 Police in Bangladesh have seized a large amount of bombs and explosives and arrested four fighters in the second big success this week against radicals fighting for Islamic rule.
| Another one? Cheeze. They must be tripping over them. |
The elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) force uncovered the arms cache in Rajshahi city, 300km northwest of the capital Dhaka, on Friday. A spokesman for the RAB said on Saturday: "Two hundred bombs, 2000 detonators, 144 pieces of power gel explosives and bomb-making materials were seized from two hideouts late on Friday." The hideouts were raided after police had detained four fighters hours earlier.
| I wonder if the raids took place at 3 a.m.? I wonder if the four "fighters" survived the experience? |
On Wednesday, the RAB arrested three leading fighters, including Ataur Rahman Sunny, an "operations commander", and seized 120kg of explosives, 27 grenades, dozens of detonators and 24 revolvers in Dhaka and southeastern Chittagong. Police said Abu Isha, one of the four detained in Rajshahi on Friday, was a regional operations commander. Bangladesh authorities blamed the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen group for a recent wave of bombings that has killed at least 30 people and wounded 150 since 17 August.
In Rajshahi, RAB in separate lightning swoops, arrested four operatives of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) including its Rajshahi district commander and seized a large quantity of bomb-making materials. The arrested were identified as JMB district commander Mohammed Abu Musa alias Enamul, 27, Mohammed Ajmat Ali, 28, his brother Mohammed Hasmat Ali, 35, and Mohammed Abdul Wahab, 40. The recovered explosives and bomb-making materials include 2,000 electric bomb detonators and 144 pieces of power gel.
Tipped off, a team of the crack crime-busting force netted Enamul, son of Mohammed Abdul Karim Akand of Char Laxmipur under Belkuchi upazila of Sirajganj district, at around 1:00am at Katakhali in the northwestern divisional city.
Enamul admitted to his involvement in the August 17 bomb blasts on the premises of the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Rajshahi.
Acting on his painfully extracted confession, the RAB team arrested Ajmat Ali, son of Mohammed Nazir, at their Naodapara house in the city at around 4:00am. On information extracted from Ajmat, the law enforcers found Hasmat Ali hiding in the attic with 64 pieces of power gel.
| He was hiding in deoderant? |
The base of Asadullah al Galib, chief of another Islamist outfit Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh (AHAB), is also located at Naodapara under Motihar Police Station.
The same RAB team then arrested Abdul Wahab, son of Mohammed Jasimuddin Sheikh, from their house at West Banshbari under Putia upazila of the district at around 5:30am.
| 5:30 am is too late to set up a proper crossfire, so Abdul gets a day in the pokey. Until tomorrow night. |
Searching the house, RAB members recovered 500 electric detonators and 80 power gels from inside a computer casing hidden in a haystack. The team found 1,500 more electric detonators in a sound box hanging from the ceiling of the house.
Sources said the detainees are being interrogated at the RAB-5 office and are coming up with information vital to national security.
| And soon they'll try to escape. |
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