DHAKA, Jan 20, 2019 (BSS) – Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) last night arrested a militant financer, an accused in Gulahan café attack case, from Gazipur Board Bazar area.
“A team of RAB arrested Md Mamunur Rashid alias Ripon alias Rejaul Karim alias Abu Mujahir, 30, a majlish-e-shura (highest policymaking body) of banned militant outfit JMB (Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh) from Board Bazar area of Gazipur,” RAB’s legal and media wing director commander Mufti Mahmud Khan told journalists at a press conference at Karwan Bazar here.
He added: “Taka over 1.47 lakh were also recovered from Ripon, the key arms and explosive supplier and financer of Gulshan cafe attack.”
The RAB official said Rashid collected Taka 39 lakh prior to the attack on Gulshan Holey Artisan Bakery in 2016.
The investigation officers found that money, arms brought in by militants from a neighbouring country.
The media wing commander said the arrestee, however, confessed his involvement during a primary interrogation.
On July 1 in 2016, a group of armed militants stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital’s Gulshan and killed 20 hostages, mostly foreign nationals.
Two police officials were also killed during the 12-hour standoff. Police held home-grown militant group “Neo JMB” responsible for the country’s worst ever terrorist attack.
On July 23 last year, Inspector Humayun Kabir of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit submitted charge sheet to the court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Dhaka, accusing the eight and naming 211 people as prosecution witnesses.