Dhaka: A suspected Islamist extremist, who allegedly supplied arms, explosives and money to the militants who carried out 2016 terror attack on a cafe in Bangladesh, has been arrested, police said Sunday.
The militant identified as Mamunur Rashid Ripon was arrested from a bus in Gazipur city in central Bangladesh and is a prime suspect in the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery, said the police’s elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
“He was arrested around 1am Sunday aboard a bus travelling from Haluaghat to Dhaka,” RAB spokesman Mufti Mahmud Khan was quoted as saying by ‘bdnews’. According to Khan, Ripon was in possession of Tk 150,000 (Rs 1.27 lakh) at the time of his arrest.
According to investigators, Ripon, a top tier neo-JMB militant, was responsible for supplying arms, explosives and money to the militants who carried out the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery, an upmarket cafe in Dhaka on July 1, 2016 that killed 22 people, including a 19-year-old Indian girl.
Eighteen foreigners were among those shot and hacked to death by five militants in the 10-hour standoff at the cafe before military commandos stormed the building and freed some two dozen other people.
Two years after the incident, the police identified 21 people in connection with the attack. Investigators said a total of 21 militants were involved in planning the assault but 13 of them were killed in subsequent anti-terrorism operations by security forces.
Six of the accused, Jahangir Alam alias Rajib Gandhi, Rakibul Hasan Regan, Rashedul Islam alias Rash, Sohel Mahfuz, Mizanur Rahman alias Baro Mizan and Hadisur Rahman Sagar, were brought to the court for the indictment. Two other suspects, Shahidul Islam Khan and Ripon, were absconding at the time. Now only Shahidul remains large.
PTI
