Police arrest ‘Ansarullah terrorists’ from Sitakunda in Bangladesh’s Chittagong

Close on the heels of the Gulshan and Sholakia terror attacks, police have arrested four suspected members of the dreaded Ansarullah Bangla Team from Sitakunda in Chittagong.

Although the Jam’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) has been blamed for the Gulshan-Sholakia terror strikes, the Ansarullah Bangla Team's involvement has been found in various murders in the last few months.

The news about the arrests had been doing the rounds since Saturday morning. But the police had denied about it.

On Sunday night the arrests were confirmed to bdnews24.com by Chittagong Additional SP (North)Mustfizur Rahman.

Those arrested are Musa alias Emayer, 25, Md Shipon alias Faisal, 25, Khurshed Alam, 31, and Russel Md Islam, 41.

On Monday evening, Mustafizur Rahman told bdnews24.com that the arrests were made on Sunday night following a tip off.

Four machetes, four other sharp weapons locally called 'Krise', six cell phones, and one laptop and a tab was recovered from them besides incriminating documents.

The police officer said that the arrested terrorists had planned to destablise the country through attacks on factories and industries and had managed to seek refuge in the area using local help that they managed.

Musa hails from Chittagong, Khurshed from Anowara, Russel from Chittagong and Shipon hails from Brahmanbaria, the police said.

Chittagong District Police Additional Superintendent (Special Wing), Rejaul Masud said that the four arrested were active members of the Ansarullah Bangla Team.

They had told investigators that they were followers of the outfit’s leader Mufti Jashim Uddin Rahmani, he added.

One of the four arrested is a finance (Baitul Maal) secretary of the organization, the police said.

Masud said that a case had been registered with the Sitakunda Police Station and that they would be interrogated after obtaining their remand.

Mustafizur Rahman added an operation was on to nab those who had provided shelter to them.