Neo JMB militant wanted in Dhaka attack and Burdwan blast arrested

Bangladesh Police on Saturday arrested a militant of the banned Neo JMB outfit who is suspected to be one of the planners of the Gulshan cafe terror attack, police said.

The arrested militant Sohel Mahfuz is also wanted in India for an October 2014 explosion in a house in Khagragarh in Burdwan district of West Bengal. India's National Investigation Agency has placed a Rs 10 lakh bounty on him, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit arrested Sohel Mahfuz and three of his accomplices from a mango grove in Chapainawabganj area.

Sohel alias Hatkata Mahfuz is the top explosives specialist of Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (New JMB) and a key arms and explosives supplier for the banned outfit. He had supplied the explosives for the terror attack on the Holey Artisan bakery in July last year in which over 20 people, mostly foreigners, were killed.

He is one of the five most wanted "militants" in the attack on the bakery last year, the CTTC chief said.

The other detained are Jewel alias Ismail, Hafizur Rahman alias Hasan and Mostofa Kamal alias Jamal.

Acting on an anonymous tip, a CTTC team was able to arrest them on Saturday morning, CTTC Additional Deputy Commissioner Abdul Mannan said.

--IANS

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