DHAKA: Bangladesh police have arrested a militant over last year’s deadly Dhaka cafe siege, officials said Saturday, as authorities continue to crack down on militant outfits a year after the attack.
The counter-terrorism unit arrested Sohel Mahfuz, who allegedly supplied the weapons used in the Holey Artisan Bakery attack where armed gunmen killed at least 22 people, mostly foreigners, after taking them hostage.
“He was the supplier of the weapons in the Holey incident. We were hunting him way before the attack,” Abdul Mannan, counter-terrorism additional commissioner, said.
Acting on a tip-off, police arrested the 33 year old from the northwestern Chapainawabganj district along with three associates, Mannan said.
Mahfuz is the chief of the northern command of Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a homegrown extremist outfit blamed for the attack.
He is also wanted in India for his alleged role in a 2014 blast in Burdwan, West Bengal, in which two people were killed and police recovered a huge cache of improvised explosives, the official said.
The arrest came within days of US-based monitoring group SITE publishing a statement of a Daesh operative who warned of many more attacks in West Bengal, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Daesh claimed the Holey Artisan Bakery attack but the government has blamed homegrown JMB.
Bangladesh has been reeling from a spate of extremist violence in recent years, with dozens of foreigners, secular writers, atheist activists and members of religious minorities killed.
Since the cafe attack, security forces have gunned down nearly 70 extremists across the country and rounded up scores more.
Bangladesh police arrest top militant over cafe attack
Bangladesh police arrest top militant over cafe attack
North Korean leader Kim watches cruise missile tests with his daughter
- KCNA said the missiles hit target islands off North Korea’s west coast
SEOUL, South Korea: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his teenage daughter observed tests of strategic cruise missiles fired from a warship, state media reported Wednesday, as North Korea threatened responses to US-South Korean military drills.
Images sent by the Korean Central News Agency showed the two in a conference room looking at a screen showing weapons being fired from the Choe Hyon, a year-old naval destroyer.
Kim Jong Un watched the missiles launches via video on Tuesday and underscored the need to maintain “a powerful and reliable nuclear war deterrent,” KCNA reported in a dispatch that did not mention his daughter.
The girl, reportedly named Kim Ju Ae and about 13, has accompanied her father at numerous prominent events including military parades and weapons launches since late 2022. South Korea’s spy agency assessed last month Kim Jong Un was close to designating her as his heir.
KCNA said the missiles hit target islands off North Korea’s west coast. It quoted Kim Jong Un as saying the launches were meant to demonstrate the navy’s strategic offensive posture and get troops familiarized with weapons firings.
Kim Jong Un observed similar cruise missile launches from the Choe Hyon in person last week, but his daughter was not seen at that appearance.
Tuesday’s missile firings came after the start of the springtime US-South Korean military drills that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.
On Tuesday, Kim Jong Un’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, warned the drills reveal again the US and South Korea’s “inveterate repugnancy toward” North Korea. She said North Korea will “convince the enemies of our war deterrence.”
The 11-day Freedom Shield drill that began Monday is largely a computer-simulated command post exercise and will be accompanied by a field training program. North Korea often reacts to the two sets of training with its own weapons tests.
