Detainee Samad was close aide to militant Tamim Chowdhury, say police

Police say that detainee and suspected militant Abdus Samad was the ‘second-in- command’ of the neo-JMB group led by Tamim Chowdhury.

Samad was arrested alongside two other suspects -- his father-in-law Ziadul Islam and Md Azizul Islam aka Mehedi Hasan aka Shishir -- during a raid in Dhaka’s Mohakhali on Wednesday evening.

Counterterrorism chief Monirul Islam discussed the details of the detainees at a press conference on Thursday.

Samad, who hails from Dinajpur, sat for his Hadis exams in 2002 and Fazil exams in 2011, said Islam. He joined JMB in 2010.

An initial interrogation found that Samad formed a group named ‘Zunad Al Tawheed al Khilafai’ with Tamim Chowdhury in 2014. Tamim was the chief of the organisation, while Samad was his ‘second-on-command’.

Samad was adept in a range of militant activities, including making explosives, said Islam.

He recruited new operatives for the organisation, raised funds and even made high-level decisions, he claimed.

Samad trained new members to handle weapons and use grenades. He eventually climbed the ranks after various other top-level neo-JMB leaders were arrested or killed.

Last June, an individual nicknamed Ayyub Bachchu was attempting to organise a neo-JMB militant outfit, Islam said. Ayyub Bachchu is his name inside the organisation.

The following month three women were arrested at a suspected militant hideout in Kushtia’s Bheramara.

At Thursday’s briefing, Islam said Tamim Chowdhury and Samad had played a role in establishing militant training camps in Kalyanpur and Mirpur areas.

Samad took over the organisation’s activities after the arrest of Holey Artisan attack plotter Sohel Mahfuz, he said.

Police say Samad’s father-in-law Ziadul Islam was tasked with smuggling weapons, explosives and detonators across the Chapainawabganj border and was also tasked with maintenance and distribution.

Police say they recovered a 9mm pistol, five rounds of ammunitions and 200 detonators from the detainees during the raid.