Rapid Action Battalion yesterday claimed to have arrested four members of the banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) at a fiat in the capital's Jatrabari.

According to Rab, the four belong to "Sarwar-Tamim group".

The arrestees include the "IT chief of the group Ashfaq e Azam alias Apel, 26, of Rangpur. The others are Shahinuzzaman alias Shaon, 30, of Jhenidah, Mahbubur Rahman alias Rumi, 23, of Bogra, and Ashraf Ali, 24, of Jamalpur.

They were trying to reorganise the group and had a plan to carry out subversive activities, Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of Rab's legal and media wing, told reporters at a press briefing in front of the building.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of Rab-10 arrested them along with two pistols, 21 bullets and bomb- making materials, including explosives, detonators and circuit breakers, he added.

Introducing them as construction workers, they rented the flat on the first floor of the five-storey building. The militants then set up a "factory" there to produce bombs, Rab claimed.

Around 3:30am, Rab took position around the building and conducted the drive breaking into the flat half an hour later.

Replying to a quay, the Rab official said the arrestees did not get any scope for putting up any resistance as the Rab men entered the flat suddenly, aiming to arrest them alive to get more clues.

Locals said many neighbours were panicked and kept their doors closed until the Rab men left the place with the arrestees, arms and ammunition. The situation became normal around 8:00am.

Saber Hossen Anas, son of house owner Shailu Begum, told The Daily Star that two men, aged around 32 and 28, rented the flat on January 20 for He 7,000 a month.lhey said they were siblings.

The two started living in the two-room flat on January 23. One of their wives was to stay with them from yesterday.

They dilly-dallied to submit tenant information forms, saying they would fill

thoseup afterherarrival.

It was not clear whether the two were among the four arrestees as he did not see thefour, said Saber.

His mother Shailu and a ground floor tenant Faruque Hossain, were picked up by Rab for interrogation.

According to Rab, Ashfaq got involved in militancy in 2011 when he was a university student.

He then got acquainted with Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, the top coordinator of “Neo JMB". Tamim was killed during a police raid in Narayanganj on August 27 last year.

Rab also initially named the group as "Neo JMB" but started branding it as "Sarwar-Tamim group” following a rift with CounterTerrorism unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police over the position of Sarwar Jahan in the outfit. Sarwar

jumped to death while trying to flee during a Rab raid in Ashulia on October 8 last year.

According to Rab, Ashfaq, who worked at different IT firms, was given the charge of IT section fol lowing the arrest of his predecessor Mostafizur Rahman Sifat by Rabon August 9 last year.

Shahinuzzaman joined militancy in 2014 and took part in physical training with some others in Mirpur. He accidentally shot himself in the leg during an arms training in Chittagong.

Mahbubur, a staff of a courier service, used to transport secret parcels of the group, Rab claimed.

Another arrestee, Ashraf, a garment worker who studied up to class-VIII, got involved in militancy by one of his neighbours. He took arms training in Chittagong two years ago.