4 women, including students, arrested in Dhaka for JMB links

From Anisur Rahman Dhaka, Aug 16 (PTI) Three women students of a privateuniversity and a woman intern at the Dhaka Medical CollegeHospital have been arrested for their alleged links with theoutlawed JMB group, blamed for the terror attack on an upscalecafe in Dhaka that killed 22 people, including an Indian girl. The elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) today said theJamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh women operatives were monitoredbefore the arrests last night. "We came to know about women operatives from an earlierarrest of a JMB regional chief. We secretly monitored one ofthem and then arrested the four from different areas of thecity," a RAB official said. He confirmed one of the arrested JMB operatives was anintern at the state-run hospital and the three others werepharmacy students of Manarat University. One of them is believed to be the recruiter of the gang. "We secured substantial information about JMB from herphone records," he said. The RAB issued a group photo of the four in custody inwhich the women could be seen in veils covering their faces. The arrests were the second major success for authoritiesprobing JMB’s women activists after the arrest of seven womenlast month from central Tangail district. Of the seven, atleast three were part of "suicide squad", police had said. In another development, police’s counter-terrorism unitchief Monirul Islam told reporters they have identified sevenmore suspects involved in the attack on Holey Artisan cafe onJuly 1, apart from fugitives Tamim Chowdhury and Nurul IslamMarzan. "We have identified the fresh suspects by theirorganizational names so far. Investigations are underway togather more information about them," Islam said. The police also claimed to have tracked down Chowdhury andMarzan and "they are staying very much in Dhaka". On August 12, police unidentified Marzan and Chowdhury.The next day, they named former university teacher HasnatKarim in the case. Police have arrested more than a dozen presumed JMBactivists, which they call neo-JMB activists because of theirinclination towards the Islamic State terrorist group, whichinitialy claimed the cafe attack. But authorities have deniedpresence of IS in Bangladesh. PTI AR ABH AKJABH