Bangla seeks Interpol help to bring 2 HuJi men from India

Bangladesh has sought Interpol help to bring back two HuJI operatives, said to be now in India, officials said on Tuesday.

Bangladesh has sought Interpol help to bring back two Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami operatives, said to be now in India, as detained leaders of the outfit pointed to their involvement in at least three blasts killing over 40 people in the past several years, officials said on Tuesday.

They said the Criminal Investigation Department sought the assistance saying Morsalin and Muttakin directly took part in the deadly August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally leaving 24 dead, the 2001 bomb attack on a crowd celebrating Bengali New Year in Dhaka leaving 12 dead and blasts on a Communist Party rally in 2005 claiming five lives.

CID sources said HuJI chief Mufty Hannan and his five detained accomplices gave the names of the twin brothers during interrogations and after investigations they became “almost sure” that the duo fled the country to take refuge in India and were arrested with a huge quantity of explosives from New Delhi railway station on February 26, 2006.

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They were now detained in a Delhi jail, they said.

HuJI is believed to be involved in several other blasts including the 2004 grenade attack on British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury in which five people were killed.

Now detained former prime minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina and the British envoy narrowly escaped the 2004 attacks.

Indian security agencies also suspect that HuJI could be behind the serial blasts in Uttar Pradesh last week.

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Meanwhile, authorities on Monday ordered prisons across the country to be on alert after abortive jail break attempts by five Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operatives in central Comilla district on Sunday.

“We have alerted the prisons across the country,” Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddique said adding, investigations were underway with Home Ministry constituting two high-level inquiry committees.

The militants on Sunday night beat up five guards at Comilla jail and tried to break free.