Another mastermind of Dhaka cafe attack arrested

DHAKA: Another mastermind of Bangladesh's worst terror attack at a popular cafe here has been arrested, a week after a top Islamist militant accused in the deadly siege was killed during a raid by counter terrorism forces.

Islamic State-linked Neo-Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen's leader Jahangir Alam alias Rajib alias Gandhi was arrested yesterday from Elenga, some 120 kilometres north of the capital, by Bangladeshi Police's Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit.

He is one of the main masterminds of the Gulshan's Holey Artisan Bakery (cafe) attack in Dhaka's posh diplomatic area that killed 23 people, including 17 foreigners, CTTC chief Monirul Islam was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune.

Police said Rajib's name surfaced during investigations when they found that he served Neo-JMB as the commander of the outfit for the Northern districts.

The arrest was made a week after Neo-JMB's most wanted leader Nurul Islam alias Marzan and another extremist were killed by counter-terrorism forces in Mohammadpur Beribadh area of the capital during a pre-dawn raid.

Police had claimed that Marzan coordinated the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery.

Earlier, a Bangladeshi-Canadian Tamim Chowdhury, who was singled out by the police as the neo-JMB chief and the key player in the recent terror activities in Bangladesh, and two others were killed in a police operation in Narayanganj on August 27.

Last week, RAB arrested 10 people from different parts of Dhaka for their suspected involvement with the cafe attackers.

A dozen other top and second-tier leaders of the New JMB group are still absconding.