5 JeM militants arrested in Bangladesh

Dhaka, Mar 1: Five of Pakistan based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants, including the Pakistani coordinator in Bangladesh, who also works as a recruiter for operations in India, has been arrested on Sunday, Feb 28, officials said.

Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, Assistant Director of the elite Rapid Action Batalion (RAB) identified the arrested Pakistan national Rezwan Ahmed, 26, of Karachi, while the remaining four Bangladeshi nationals have been identified as Imazuddin alias Munna and Sadek Hossain alias Khoka, Abu Naser Munshi and Nannu Mia alias Belal Mandol.

They have been arrested during the special anti-militancy drive near the Dhaka College.

Rezwan, who is believed to be fluent in Hindi, Urdu, Bangla and English confessed to working as JeM's regional coordinator, including working as a recruiting agent for conducting operations in India, officials said.

Officials added that the Pakistani coordinator is also well trained in using handguns, sniper rifles, automatic weapons, light machine guns, heavy machineguns, RPGs and executing operations using explosives.

Rezwan is also experienced in planning suicide attacks at rail stations and trains.

Col Zia Ahsan of the RAB said that the security forces have seized passports, sharp weapons, computer CPUs, different identity cards and foreign currencies from them.

One of the detainee Nannu Mia has been arrested earlier for his involvement in terror activities in India and was arrested in 1999 in connection with the hijacking of the Indian airlines from Kathmandu.

RAB said that it has also come to light that Nannu was imprisoned in Guwahati for about 10 years, and he has more than four militancy-related cases pending against him in different Indian courts.

The suspects would be taken into custody for interrogation, Col Ahsan said.

The banned JeM which was founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in Jan 31, 2000, who was released during the Kandahar hijacking as part of the deal to release the hostages.

The outfit was behind the Dec 13, 2001 terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi.

OneIndia News