Top JMB man caught, wife blasts bomb

RAB arrested most-wanted JMB explosives expert Boma Mizan on Thursday and then his wife detonated a bomb at their house in the capital's Mirpur when the elite force went there to seize bombs and explosives.

The raid at 10:30pm set in motion a tense four-hour drama that ended with her arrest early into Friday.

Burqa-clad Sharmin Haque Lata, the wife of Jahidur Rahman alias 'Boma Mizan', the alleged operative of banned Islamist outfit Jam'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, blasted the bomb to duck arrest when she sensed the presence of the security men.

The bomb blew her right wrist off and injured their two children. One child is two years old and the other one is only two months.

She was arrested with the children, all bloodied and sent to hospital.

bdnews24.com correspondent saw from a nearby building the profusely bleeding, severed hand of the woman dangling.

Additional director general of RAB Rezanur Rahman Khan briefed reporters after the operation that they had picked up Mizan from Taltala.

He told them during questioning that he had bomb and explosives on the second-floor apartment at 61/3 Pirerbagh at Shewrapara in Mirpur.

When the elite force reached the apartment along with Mizan and knocked on the door, he talked with his wife in a coded language. "How are you? I am sick," Mizan was quoted by Khan as telling his wife.

Moments later, she blasted the bomb, which made a hole in the door and sending the RAB men scurrying for cover.

They then asked Mizan's wife from loudspeaker not to blast anymore bomb and come out of the apartment.

The woman, apparently in pain and crying, said that the bomb had gone off in her hand, and that she was too injured to get up and open the steel door.

Finally, she came out with the children.

Police seized one live bomb, one pistol and two grenades from the apartment.

Mizan was a senior member of JMB and an close aide to Shaekh Abdur Rahman, the head of outfit, and Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai. who were hanged in 2006, the RAB official said.

He was arrested in 2003 at Jhikargachha border in Jessore while carrying explosives in a motor cycle.

Mizan is son of Shuja Mian of Shekher Bhita at Jamalpur town.

A court in Chittagong sentenced him, JMB Chittagong Division chief Javed Iqbal and two others last year to 20 years in prison each for bomb attack on a judge in 2005. He was tried in absentia.

Owner of the house, Nishat Mohammad, told bdnews24.com that Mizan rented the two-room apartment on Apr 1 at Tk 3500 per month, and introduced himself as Imrul Kayes.

Mizan had claimed that he was a hardware businessman and electrician from Jessore, while the police said Mizan was from Jamalpur.