Cafe attack rerun alert

The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh has been planning to carry out an attack in the neighbouring country similar to the one on a Dhaka café that killed 22 people in July if one of its commanders is executed, sources have said.

Officers said the information was sourced from the six suspected JMB activists arrested from Bengal and Assam over the past few days.

Asadul Islam Arif, a JMB commander who had plotted a blast that killed two senior assistant judges in Jhalakathi district of Bangladesh in 2005, was awarded capital punishment.

The Supreme Court rejected his review petition this August, making the execution almost certain.

‘Arif is a top JMB commander who has a death sentence pending against him. The banned terror outfit has been planning to carry out an attack similar to the one on the Holey Artisan Bakery at Gulshan within a week of his execution,’ a senior home department official said.

Sources said Anwar Hossain Farooq, one of the six suspected JMB members who was arrested from North 24-Parganas, had told interrogators that his counterparts in Bangladesh had contacted a top leader of the outfit in India, Salauddin, and asked him to arrange for explosives that could be used for the attack that is being allegedly planned.

Organised terror activity made its debut in Bangladesh on July 1 when terrorists raided the Holey Artisan Bakery, a diplomatic enclave in Dhaka, and killed 22 people.

‘It seems the JMB’s plan is to create a big impact through the attack to avenge Arif’s execution,’ said an officer.

Sources in the Bangladesh establishment said Arif’s execution was ‘a matter of time’ as the Sheikh Hasina government had pledged zero tolerance on terror activities.

The government has already executed five leaders accused of engaging in war crimes during the liberation war against Pakistan in 1971, reports The Telegraph Calcutta.

The JMB, a home-grown terror outfit in Bangladesh, had in August 2005 claimed to have orchestrated around 500 minor blasts across 63 of its 64 districts within a span of 30 minutes.

‘The Hasina government has been cracking down on the JMB. Many of its senior operatives have escaped to this side of the border to regroup, plan and execute attacks in Bangladesh,’ the home department official said.

Another official said officers of Bangladesh’s counter-terrorism wing had been alerted about the alleged attack plan.