Another JMB Shura man captured
Staff Correspondent
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) members yesterday arrested one more member of the Majlish-e-Shura, the top policymaking body of the banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) from near Baitul Mukarram mosque in Dhaka.Mohammad Rakib Hasan Russell alias Hafez Mahmud, 28, is an Afgan war veteran and also the Khulna divisional commander of the JMB. With his arrest, the number of the captured JMB Shura members reached three. Rab arrested Shura members Ataur Rahman Sunny, military commander of the militant outfit and also the younger brother of the JMB chief Abdur Rahman on December 13, and Abdul Awal, Rahman's son-in-law, on November 18 last year. "We've caught Hafez Mahmud," said a top Rab official yesterday evening preferring anonymity. "We'll disclose details about him and the operation later as we are launching follow-up operation taking him along with us," he added. Sources said being confirmed on Monday that Mahmud will come to meet a person in Baitul Mukarram mosque yesterday, Rab members deployed their forces in the area in guises of beggars and small vendors to nab him. The elite force had been receiving information about his movement for the last few days, they added. According to sources, Rab members took Mahmud along with them and raided four to five places in and outside the capital following information extracted from him. A Rab team has also started for Sylhet for conducting further raids. During primary interrogation, Mahmud told the Rab members that he does not know the whereabouts of JMB chief Abdur Rahman and operations commander Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai as he has no contact with them since August 17 countrywide serial blasts. He has not yet given detailed information and those he has given so far are being verified, the sources said. The JMB's Majlish-e-Shura comprises seven members. Four Shura members -- Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai, Khalid Saifullah (commander of Chittagong division) and Salahuddin (commander of Mymensingh-Sylhet region) -- are yet to be netted. The government declared Tk 50 lakh reward for the arrest of each JMB kingpins -- Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai -- on September 18. On December 19, the government announced another Tk 10 lakh bounty on each of the Shura members and Tk 1 lakh for an Eshar (full-time member) of JMB. Mahmud hails from Bangshi Beltoli village in Melandah upazila of Jamalpur. He passed Dakhil from a madrasa in Melandah and later studied in Mohammadia Arabia Jatrabari Kowmi Madrasa. He can speak Arabic and Urdu.
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