Top Jaish-e-Mohammed militant Nannu Mia alias Belal Mandol, who claimed to have played a key role in the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in 1999 from Kathmandu to Kandahar, has been arrested along with four other militants near the Dhaka College, Bangladeshi officials have said.Five JeM operatives of the Pakistan-based militant group , including its Pakistani coordinator in Bangladesh who was also a recruiter for operations in India, were nabbed, officials said here on Sunday.
Of the five JeM activists, one is a Pakistani national while the remaining four are Bangladeshi citizens, said Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, assistant director of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
The arrest of Belal, who claims to be a native of north Bangladeshi town Shylet, along with Rezwan Ahmed is being considered as a major success by the local authorities.
RAB officials said they had learnt that Nannu was imprisoned in Guwahati for about 10 years, with more than four militancy-related cases pending against him in different courts in India.
No details
However, sources in Delhi said they had no information whether Nannu was involved in the hijacking case.
Rezwan, 26, of Karachi, two brothers Imazuddin alias Munna and Sadek Hossain alias Khoka and Abu Naser Munshi were arrested during the special anti-militancy drive.
RAB officials said Rezwan had confessed that he was JeM’s regional coordinator and also a recruiting agent for conducting operations in India.
Rezwan, a fluent speaker in Hindi, Urdu, Bangla and English, was well trained to use handguns, sniper rifles, automatic weapons, light machine guns, heavy machine guns, RPGs and executing operations using explosives, officials said.
They said he was also skilled in planning suicide attacks at rail stations and trains.
The security forces seized passports, sharp weapons, computer CPUs, different identity cards and foreign currencies from them, Col Zia Ahsan of the RAB said.
He said the suspects would be taken into custody for interrogation.