Two suspected JMB militants arrested

Bangladesh’s elite force, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), in separate drives, on Saturday night detained two suspected members of banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in country’s northern Rangpur district.

The detainees have been identified as Rafiqul Islam, 58, and Nurul Islam, 27, according to RAB.

"Acting on a tip-off, a RAB-13 team conducted a drive in the Haragachh area of the city and arrested Rafiqul on Saturday night," Khandaker Golam Mortuza, media officer for RAB, told journalists.

In another drive, the elite force arrested Nurul with leaflets and some jihadi books, from Talpatti in Gangachhara upazila, he added.

RAB says they were raising funds and recruiting members for the militant outfit.

JMB, an indigenous terrorist group founded in 1998 and committed to establishing a so-called Islamic state in Bangladesh through violence.

The group stormed onto South Asia’s jihadist scene with a synchronized, country-wide bomb assault on August 17, 2005.

The members of the outfit group detonated approximately 460 bombs within a 30-minute period at 300 locations in 63 of the 64 districts in Bangladesh.

Most of the top ranking leaders of JMB including its chief Shaykh Abdur Rahman and his brother Ataur Rahman Sani were served capital punishment later.

Kamruzzaman