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
Pull him off TV: Steve Bannon shuts down Sen. Lindsey Graham
- Trump’s former chief strategist called for the senator to be registered as a foreign agent
DUBAI: Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon called on Tuesday for US Senator Lindsey Graham to be registered as a foreign agent of the Israeli government, escalating a growing conservative backlash against the senator’s vocal support for Israel.
Speaking on his podcast “War Room,” Bannon said Graham should be “pulled off of television,” adding: "This is dangerous… because you have guys like Lindsey Graham and dozens more that are doing the wrong thing.”
In a Fox News interview on Monday, Graham said: “To all the antisemites, to all the isolationists… I’m not with you, I’m with Israel, I will be with Israel to our dying day.”
Graham also urged Gulf Arab states to join military action against Iran. “What I want you to do in the Middle East, to our friends in Saudi Arabia and other places, [is] step forward and say, ‘this is my fight too, I join America, I’m publicly involved in bringing this regime down,’” he said.
In a post on X, Graham questioned the value of a US defense agreement with Saudi Arabia following the evacuation of the American embassy in Riyadh, writing: “Why should America do a defense agreement with a country like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that is unwilling to join a fight of mutual interest?”
Faisal Abbas, editor-in-chief of Arab News, responded to Graham’s comments in a Sky News interview, saying: “He flip flops so much, it’s actually entertaining.”
“On one hand, he says he will never set foot in Saudi Arabia. The next day, he’s here signing multimillion-dollar deals.”
“I don’t think anyone here takes him seriously,” Abbas added.
He warned Graham to be careful what he wished for: “Do you really want Saudi Arabia involved in this war putting our oil facilities at risk or do you want us stabilizing the energy markets?”
Graham pressed further, warning that inaction would carry a price. “Hopefully Gulf Cooperation Council countries will get more involved as this fight is in their backyard. If you are not willing to use your military now, when are you willing to use it?”
“Hopefully this changes soon. If not, consequences will follow.”
Graham's remarks drew sharp criticism from Bannon and others including podcast host Megyn Kelly.
She questioned on X whether Graham was overstepping his authority as a senator, writing: “When did Lindsay Graham become our president?”
Kelly also said Graham had threatened Lebanon, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, the wider Arab region, and Spain within a 24-hour period.
The problem with Graham “isn’t (just) that he’s a homicidal maniac, it’s that Trump likes and is listening to him,” she said in another post.
