7 held over suspected militancy link

Police detained seven people for their suspected link to militancy in Mymensingh town yesterday.

They are Shahidul Islam, 28, and Ashiqur Rahman, 19, of Haluaghat upazila; Al Amin, 25, of Dhobaura upazila; Masum Ahmed, 30, Shah Al Hossain Shamim, 27, Ruman Miah, 27, of Netrakona's Purbadhala; and Amir Uddin, 27, of the district's Mohanganj.

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Kamrul Islam, officer-in-charge of Kotwali Police Station, claimed that Amir is a third-year student of Mymensingh Medical College. 

Syed Nurul Islam, superintendent of Mymensingh police, said acting on a tip-off, police raided a one-storey building on Boro Kalibari Road around 12:30pm.

He said police first asked them to surrender, but when they did not comply, police broke into the house and detained them.

The SP said no firearms or explosives were found in the house. But police recovered several computers and some chequebooks, electronic devices and jihadi books from the house.

They had been living in the house for the last four months, police said.

Police said one of the detainees, Masum, first identified himself as a brother of the house owner. But he later admitted that he was a distributor of consumer products and rented the house. 

Except Amir, five others were working with Masum.

Additional SP of Mymensingh Noor-e-Alam said the detainees were taken to the office of the Detective Branch (DB) of police for interrogation.

Bilkis Begum of a neighbouring house said the house owner lives in the capital.