Two suspected militants held in city

Detectives arrested two suspected members of a new militant organisation in the city on Wednesday night. The law enforcers also recovered three pistols, 16 rounds of bullet and some explosives from their possession. Sources at the Detective Branch (DB) of police said two suspected militants were arrested from Mohammadpur, who the detectives claimed were working to form an armed outfit. “One of the arrestees is the chief of militant outfit while the other is the financier," Dhaka Metropolitan Police Additional Deputy Commissioner SM Jahangir Alam Sarkar said on Thursday. He said three ‘handguns’, 16 rounds of ammunition and some explosives were recovered in the drive late on Wednesday. He said the two arrested were "Abdullah" and "Tamal". On May 30, 25-year-old Abdullah Al Galib was picked up from Baridhara DOHS by detective police. DB Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Nazmul Alam said Galib was one of the coordinators of the banned Islamic outfit, Ansarullah Bangla Team. Before joining it, he was associated with the Hizb-ut Tahrir and Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), two other banned Islamic outfits, the DB official said. He recently launched a Jihadi organisation called the ‘Junud At-Tawheed Wal Khilafah’ with the aim of establishing Khilafat in Bangladesh , collected 10 to 15 members and started training them, the detectives said. A video seized from Galib’s house was played at the press briefing. It showed nine masked men wearing sports trousers and black T-shirts, posing with pistols or revolvers. The Kalima, declaration of the faith in Allah, was seen written on a banner behind them. It seemed that the video had been shot in the courtyard of a house. In early June, detectives detained 9 members of HuJI and Ansarullah Bangla Team and said the militants were getting involved in bank robbery and hacking of customer accounts to raise funds, according to a news agency.