Two Khulna University students arrested for ‘militant links’

Police have arrested two students of Khulna University for their suspected links to Islamist militant group Neo-JMB.

The law enforcers also seized a “huge amount” of bomb-making materials during a drive to detain them, Khulna city police chief Khandaker Lutful Kabir said.

Police conducted the operation on a house at Khorshednagar in Gollamari acting on a tip-off in the wee hours of Saturday, he said.

The detainees are BBA student Noor Mohammad Anik and statistics department’s Md Mojahidul Islam Rafi, both fourth year undergraduate students.

“They got radicalised through social media. They later got involved with the Neo-JMB being inspired by its extremist ideology. At one stage, they learnt to make bombs and started making them to carry out acts of violence,” Kabir said.

Police would seek remand of the duo to know from where they got the funds and if they had any accomplices, he said.

The university would decide on Anik and Rafi in a meeting of its disciplinary committee, Vice-Chancellor Mohammad Fayekuzzaman said.