Police raid house in Savar, recover bombs and bomb-making materials

Police have launched an operation around a three-storey house in the South Shyampur area of Savar, Dhaka.

A team from the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) is leading the operation, with members of Savar police station also taking part.

Police said on Tuesday night that they had arrested a man with bombs during the operation and recovered bomb-making materials from the house.

The operation was under way at the house of Abdul Jalil in South Shyampur, Hemayetpur at the time of writing this report.

At around 10:45 pm, Savar model police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Saiful Alam told journalists at the scene that a CTTC team had received confidential information that members of the banned militant group Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were staying there and possessed explosives.

Based on the information, police detained a man from the Hemayetpur area. They recovered bombs and explosive materials from him. Police then launched the operation at the house based on information provided by the detainee.

OC Saiful Alam said the detainee had rented the house on 1 August. He added that police, along with the bomb disposal unit, had cordoned off the house to ensure security. The recovery operation was under way with the detainee present.

Regarding the explosives recovered, OC Saiful Alam told Prothom Alo on Tuesday night that police found five powerful pipe bombs, specially made using a particular technique, inside a bag carried by the detainee. Based on information he provided, police subsequently recovered several more similar bombs and a large quantity of bomb-making materials from a room on the ground floor of the house.

Ilma, daughter of homeowner Abdul Jalil, told journalists, “After a man named Abbas Ali and another person came to rent the house, we rented it to them on the 2nd (2 August). They probably started living there from the night of the 3rd. They said a husband and wife would live there. They said they would teach children at a nearby school. We rented the house to them thinking they were a family. We had no idea they were hiding so many things inside. They said they drove cars and worked as drivers.”

Earlier, on 30 July, police recovered a specially made bomb from a travel bag that someone had left at a grocery shop in Ashulia, Savar. A bomb disposal team from the CTTC unit later safely defused the device.