Detective Branch of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police picked up Kamruzzaman Lal Chand and Sagar, father and brother of the bomber, at their house in Jamaat-dominated Dasmari area in the city.

Locals said all of the family are supporters of Jamaat, a partner of ruling coalition. The family also approved it and said Iftekhar Hasan Al Mamun, 21, the Jhalakathi bomber, was an activist of Islami Chhatra Shibir, Jamaat's student wing.

He was arrested soon after bombing two judges to death in Jhalakathi yesterday.

His father Lal Chand is a night guard of a multi-storey building belonging to BNP lawmaker Nadim Mustafa at Binodpur.

The RMP detectives in their yesterday's raid seized huge goods including several copies of Al Magajee, JMB's monthly magazine, and huge leaflets from their house.

Rajshahi police said they are certain about Mamun's involvement in the August 17 serial blasts across the country. He will be brought to Rajshahi showing him arrested in one of the blast cases.

Mamun is now receiving treatment at Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College and Hospital where he told reporters he belongs to the JMB.

He went to Jhalakathi from Rajshahi at the dictate of party leader Suman two weeks ago. He took shelter at Krishnakati village under the supervision of local JMB leader Abdul Karim, he added.

Mamun, the eldest son of the family, studied up to class IX at Jamaat-run Masjid Mission Academy in Binodpur, where Jamaat has strong supremacy.

He worked as a labourer at Ruchita Biscuit Factory in Munshidanga in the city but quit the job two and a half years ago for a visit to Dhaka.

He returned and joined Bangla Bhai's anti-outlaw operations last year.

His father said Mamun never returned home in the last one year but his mother Kohinur Begum disputed the statement, saying her son was home during the Ramadan.

Their house is located near a mosque-cum-Islami training centre in Dasmari. The mosque received funding by Al Muntada Ali Islami, who has alleged links to Saudi terrorist group al Qaeda.

Al Muntada, also widely blamed for channelling funds to local militants, appointed Ershad Ullah, a follower of militant linchpin Asadullah al Galib, as the mosque's imam.

Ershad, also a student of Galib, who used to teach Arabic at Rajshahi University, hailed from Savar in Dhaka.

Ataur Rahman, a leader of Galib's Ahle Hadith Jubo Shangha, used to give physical training to JMB cadres at the mosque.

Inscriptions on the mosque read: "Abu Bakar Siddik (R) Mosque, Donor -- Heena Ibrahim Al Fuhauyeed, and Caretaker -- Al Muntada Al Islami Bangladesh --1421 Hijri."

Sources said JMB spread its tentacles at Dasmari and its neighbouring Dharmapur and Binodpur cantering the mosque. Locals said they fear to go to the mosque as outsiders used to control it with the help of local musclemen.