SUST Ansarullah leader among 22 held

Two university students detained in Sylhet on Monday for their suspected involvement in militant activities were brought to Dhaka yesterday. Abdul Aziz, a final year student of industrial and production engineering (IPE) department at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, was picked up from the campus in the afternoon. Police say he is the coordinator of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team at SUST. The other arrested by a team of Counter-Terrorism And Transnational Crimes unit is Mahmud Chowdhury, a final year student of Leading University. A former student of Sylhet Cadet College, Aziz did not attend his classes last year and resumed studies this year. DMP Deputy Commissioner (media) Masudur Rahman said: "We have information that Abdul Aziz worked as a coordinator of Ansarullah Bangla Team at the university. We have detained him for further questioning.” On the other hand, Mahmud is a resident of the Sylhet city's Jalalabad area. He was an LLM student. Leading University Vice-Chancellor Prof Kamruzzaman Chowdhury confirmed the arrest of Mahmud to the Dhaka Tribune. Wishing to be unnamed, a LLM student said that Mahmud had been picked up from an exam hall. A high official of Sylhet Metropolitan Police said that the duo had been under the CTTC unit's surveillance for a long time. SUST Proctor Rashedul Islam said: “We received a letter from the government on Tuesday [yesterday] asking for information on the students who have remained absent for long. “We have formed a body under my leadership and letters have been sent to all departments seeking information.”

19 Jamaat-Shibir men detained

Meanwhile, police yesterday detained 19 activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir with improvised bombs and sharp weapons from Dhaka's Khilgaon. The detainees include Shibir's Khilgaon unit President Md Motaher Hossain and General Secretary M A Razzak. Police also detained building owner Reazul Karim. Inspector (investigation) Asaduzzaman told the Dhaka Tribune that they were detained in a raid at a hostel near Comilla Hotel in Khilgaon Block A area early yesterday. DMP Deputy Commissioner (media) Masudur Rahman said: “We recovered a large number of jihadi books, seven improvised bombs, four machetes and a computer from their possessions.”