Accomplice of 'prison van attacker' held

Police claimed to have arrested an accomplice of Mustafa Kamal, who was arrested in connection with attacking prison vans in Gazipur, in a madrasa of Narsingdi Sadar upazila on Tuesday night.  

The arrestee, Minhajul Islam, 19, is a Kamil (equivalent to masters) student of Jamia Emdadia Arabia Madrasa at Shekherchar in the upazila. He is from Kachikata village under Monohardi upazila, reports our Narsingdi correspondent.

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Mustafa was caught “red-handed” with bombs during Monday's attack on prison vans.

Based on his information, Tongi police with the help of Narsingdi police arrested Minhajul in the madrasa around 10:30pm on Tuesday, said Amena Begum, superintendent of Narsingdi police.

Police yesterday produced Minhajul before a Gazipur court and sought a 10-day remand for him, reports our Gazipur correspondent. 

Judge of Gazipur Judicial Magistrate Court-4 granted three days' remand for Minhajul. 

On Monday, suspected militants hurled several bombs at a convoy of four prison vans near Tongi College Gate area. One of the vans was carrying condemned Harkatul Jihad al Islami (Huji) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and his associates. They were being taken to Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur from a Dhaka court.

The bombs did not hit any of the targets.

Police suspect the attack was carried out to snatch the top militant.

Law enforcers claimed that they recovered a homemade grenade, five crude bombs, two petrol bombs, two machetes, some bomb-making materials and Tk 7,000 from Mustafa's possession.

During the attack, three of Mustafa's accomplices showed him the vans and asked him to hurl crude bombs at them, Firoz Talukder, officer-in-charge of Tongi Police Station, said earlier.

Contacted, Maulana Ashraf Ali, principal of Jamia Emdadia Arabia Madrasa, said Minhajul is a student of his madrasa. But the madrasa authorities did not know whether he was involved in militancy. 

He said Mustafa and Minhajul are students of the madrasa.