An organised network is behind recent cocktail bomb blasts and acts of sabotage in various parts of the capital, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch (DB) has said. According to law enforcement investigators, network members are paid 5,000 to 10,000 taka for each Molotov cocktail or hand bomb they set off and film. The instructions come from WhatsApp accounts opened with Indian numbers, they say.
Officials involved in the investigation said the information came from questioning people recently arrested over cocktail blasts and arson attacks on buses in the capital. According to them, several senior leaders of the Awami League, whose activities are banned, and its affiliated organisations who are based in India are acting as the main planners. Drug addicts and homeless people are being used to throw the cocktails on the ground, and young people are also being drawn in with promises of party posts, the officials said. Police say they have already found secret cocktail-making workshops in Signboard, Narayanganj, and around the Geneva Camp in Mohammadpur, Dhaka.
DB has arrested several suspects in recent drives. Among them, over a cocktail attack in front of Jatrabari police station on September 18, it arrested Raihan Uddin, office secretary of Unit 6 of Ward 32 under Bangshal police station, along with Chhatra League activists Rasel Khan, Ala Uddin and Abdullah. The same day, police recovered 10 abandoned hand bombs from the Dakkhin Duniya kitchen market area in Jatrabari. Over a cocktail blast at Kamalapur railway station on September 19, police arrested Sakhawat Hossain Raihan, organising secretary of Shahjahanpur police station Chhatra League, and Jubo League activist Mohammad Sanmun. Earlier, Salman Islam Sakib, alias Asif, joint general secretary of Motijheel police station Chhatra League, was arrested with a motorcycle and cocktails on suspicion of involvement in a bombing in front of the Supreme Court’s main gate.
Under questioning by DB officers, the arrested Raihan said they set off the cocktails in Jatrabari on the instructions of Sabbir Hossain, former general secretary of Dhaka Metropolitan South Chhatra League, according to DB. To avoid the attention of law enforcement, they borrowed a motorcycle from a shopkeeper they knew. As soon as they filmed the blast and sent the video to a designated WhatsApp number, money arrived in their mobile financial services (MFS) account, he said.
DB Wari division deputy commissioner Molla Md Shaheen and DB chief Shafiqul Islam said the offenders are using specific tactics to communicate. Technology expert Sumon Ahmed Sabir cautioned, however, that a WhatsApp account on an Indian number does not by itself show that the user is in India; such accounts can be operated from anywhere in the world through roaming or the internet.
Meanwhile, DB’s Ramna zonal team arrested an Indian national named Rabiul Islam in Uttara, Dhaka, on Monday night on suspicion of involvement in planning sabotage. Because of discrepancies in the information on his passport and driving licence, police showed him arrested under section 54 and took him on four days’ remand. Separately, Demra police arrested Md Sabuj, general secretary of the Demra police station Matshyajibi League, in Cox’s Bazar, describing him as a coordinator of bus burnings and bombings.
DB additional commissioner Shafiqul Islam said tighter intelligence surveillance is making it possible to identify and arrest offenders quickly, and that operations to root out the main sabotage network are continuing.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report