|
SYLHET, Mar 2 (Agencies): The dramatic 31-hour armed siege of the hideout of Jama'atul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) kingpin Shaekh Abdur Rahman ended peacefully Thursday morning when the country's most wanted man surrendered without bloodshed.
The siege ended at 7.20am when Shaekh Rahman came out of the house, 'Surya Dighal Bari', at Shaplabagh where he and two accomplices had been holed up for the last one and a half days.
The two other accomplices were identified as Md Maejul Islam alias Hridoy Chowdhury (39) and Md Abdul Aziz alias Hanif (24). All three were taken directly to the RAB-9 headquarters without being allowed to talk to the waiting mediamen.
The arrested JMB chief along with others were then produced before a Sylhet court that granted a 10-day remand for all detainees. A case was filed with the Kotwali Police Station against them under the Explosive Substances Act (Amended-2002).
They were later transported to Dhaka by road under heavy security.
As soon as the news of the success of the action spread, hundreds of city dwellers in Sylhet took to the street to celebrate the capture of the JMB chief.
Thousands of people also thronged around the house where the militant leader, along with his family members and disciples, has been staying for the last two months.
After a brief lull from Wednesday midnight, the law enforcers resumed their operation to force Shaekh Rahman and his accomplices to come out from the hideout at 6:15am.
Through a megaphone they asked Rahman to come out of the house and give himself up. If he did not, the security forces threatened to take tougher measures.
At the same time law enforcers began to pour water and throw teargas shells into the room where Rahman was barricaded in. At one stage, Rahman appeared at the balcony for a moment and again went inside the house.
Shaekh Abdur Rahman, who had refrained himself from talking to the law enforcers since Wednesday noon, shouted from inside the house that they were torturing him by not providing food.
Law enforces continued to insist that he gave himself up and left the house. Finally Rahman agreed to come out on condition he could talk to journalists.
The long-bearded Rahman emerged clad in Punjabi and with a red scarf over his head. He held a book in his left hand.
The law enforcers captured him immediately without giving him a chance to speak to journalists.
The anti-crime elite force seized one bomb, two detonators, two-kg explosives and a huge number of Islamic books from the last hideout of the most wanted militant leader at a pastoral site on the outskirts of this city of Muslim saints.
The RAB operation team had kept cordoned off the building named Surya Dighol Bari at Purba Shaplabagh of Tilagarh, three kilometres (kms) off the city heart, since 9:00pm Tuesday following a tip-off.
Following confessional statement of Hafez Mahmud, a suspected member of JMB's top-order Majlish-e-Shura, who was arrested from Baitul Mukarram Mosque area in the capital Tuesday noon, a massive search operation got off in Sylhet Tuesday night that led to the detection of the den.
Backed up by other agencies, the RAB personnel earlier purged nine close relatives and a domestic aide of the JMB chief from the Surya Dighal Bari Wednesday noon.
The nine detainees were Rahman's wife Ayesha Akhter alias Rupa, daughter Afifa Rahman, daughter-in-law Noorjahan Begum, grandson Talha and sons Nabil, Mahmud, Fuad and Ahad and domestic help Tasmia.
The authorities earlier had announced a bounty of Tk 1.0 million (10 lakh) for the arrest of any Shura member of the JMB, in the wake of countrywide simultaneous bombings on August 17 last. And the government put a fat bounty of Tk 5.0 million each on the heads of the JMB duo-kingpins -- Shaekh Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai -- through the declaration made on September 18 last year.
Huge explosives seized
Another report adds: The RAB seized Thursday a sizeable amount of explosives from a house in the city following confessional statement by an accomplice of JMB kingpin Shaekh Abdur Rahman who had surrendered earlier in the morning.
The explosives including potassium, nitric, electric circuit, switch, detonator etc., were seized from the house at Hatimbagh residential area of Shibganj at 4:00pm.
|