The police claim that all the robbers caught in the bank heist at Ashulia, are active members of Ansarullah Bangla Team.
The investigating officer and Ashulia police inspector (investigations) Deepak Chandra Saha told Prothom Alo that during interrogation the arrestees said that they had being trying to arrange funds to bail out the Ansarullah Bangla Team leaders who were in jail. That is why they had gone to rob the Kathgora branch of Bangladesh Commerce Bank.
The robbery took place on 21 April. They killed the bank manager, a security guard and a businessman, and then tried to make off with the loot. But the public caught them while they were fleeing. The robbers opened fire and hurled hand bombs, killing another five. The people chased them and caught three. One of them died in the mob beating and the other two were handed over to the police. They are Al Amin and Borhan Uddin, now under treatment in hospital in police custody.
Police say that they arrested another four after interrogating these two. They are Mintoo Prodhan, Babul Sardar, Harun-ur-Rashid and Sohel Rana, a security guard of the bank. Of these four, the first two have been taken on remand and will be placed before the court on Sunday.
Ashulia police station officer-in-charge (OC) Mostafa Kamal told Prothom Alo, the arrested persons are all members of Ansarullah Bangla Team. They have been planning for long to do something big in Savar and Ashulia. There are others members in the team and the police are trying to nab them too.
Sources involved in the interrogation said that the group had been planning on this Kathgora bank heist for a few months. They first make contact with the security guard and gathered information from him. On the day of the incident, a group of them positioned themselves in the vicinity of the bank, keeping an eye on public and police movement. Another group was waiting with motorbikes and a car nearby so that they could make a fast getaway after the robbery. Six of them entered the bank and carried out the looting and killing.