Five suspected militants held in Dhaka

Police in Dhaka have arrested five people for their suspected involvement with a banned militant outfit.

The Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU) made the arrests during raids at the Farmgate and Mohammadpur areas in Dhaka. 

Suspects Sheikh Kamal Hossain, Sohel Rana, AB Ahmed Pajlu, Khalequzzaman and Maniruzzaman belong to the group ‘Allah'r Dal’.   

ATU Superintendent of Police (SP) Md Aslam Khan told the media that Kamal and Shohel were held from Farmgate’s Tezturi Bazar neighbourhood on Wednesday evening. 

Kamal is the outfit's second-in-command, he said before adding that the rest were arrested during raids at Sher-e-Bangla Road area in Katasur later the same night. 

During the raids, 12 mobile phone sets, some credit cards, receipts of inmates and Tk37,062 were seized from their possession. 

Afterwards, an anti-terrorism case was filed in this connection.

Allah'r Dal was formed in 1995 under the leadership of Matin Mehedi alias Mominul Islam, and in late 2004, the outfit merged with banned militant organization Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

On November 5, 2019, the government banned Allahr Dal, describing it as a threat to public safety.