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| Bangladesh |
| JMB men lived there in guise of rickshawpullers |
| 2010-12-28 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] A group of JMB hard boyz disguised as rickshaw pullers and day labourers were residing in two secret dens near Hathazari Police Station to recruit and train members for the banned outfit. Shamim Hossain, 22, a JMB member jugged from one of the hideouts on Sunday evening, told this to police and news hounds yesterday. Shamim and ten other hard boys, including Hathazari unit JMB commander Masum, used to reside in three rooms on the ground floor of a three-storey building in Alipur Hospital Gate area. The building is only half a kilometre off the cop shoppe. The rest of the hard boyz managed to escape the arrest. While fleeing, Masum hurled an explosive at police. None of the law enforcers was injured. The hard boyz also left five bombs with high kaboom capacity in the yard. Hathazari police kept the area cordoned since Sunday night. A six-member team of Bomb Disposal Unit from Chittagong Metropolitan Police reached there yesterday morning and defused all the explosives by 4:40pm. Police recovered jihadi books and an instructional manual meant for the outfit members. Police said the manual is about selecting suitable hideouts, maintaining members' profiles, and other safety measures. Md Shafiullah, owner of the Alipur building, was yet to be quizzed. After a tip-off from Shamim, police busted another hideout in nearby Patika area where two hard boyz had been living in the guise of rickshaw pullers. None of them was held. Shamim hails from Lalmonirhat and most of his associates are from North Bengal. He was convicted with seven years' imprisonment in a case filed under Anti-Terrorism Ordinance in Nilphamari on December 4, 2008. A court sentenced him on November 11 this year, said Hathazari police. While talking to The Daily Star yesterday Shamim said he had joined Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) four years back and remained absconded since filing of the case. He moved around a lot. Shamim said he had been working as a mason in Noakhali before Masum brought him to Hathazari two months back. He started living in Alipur as a rickshaw puller. The other JMB members, including Masum, disguised as day labourers. Shamim claimed to be an ordinary member of the outfit and Masum was their chief trainer. According to police, in Patika, hard boy Mosharraf Hossain alias Saju was living with his family for years in a two-room tin-roofed house rented from an expatriate named Osman. Osman could not be contacted immediately. Monoar Hossain, another hard boy, started living in the room next to Saju's several months ago. Saju's national identity card mentions him as a dweller of Hathazari. Quoting Shamim, Officer-in-Charge Abul Kalam Azad of Hathazari Police Station, said the hard boyz kept the bombs in the den in order to flee by exploding those in case of any police raid. A case under Anti-Terrorist Ordinance has been filed against Shamim and 12 others, following Shamim's arrest. |
| Posted by:Fred |