STAFF CORRESPONDENT

The IS-inspired militant group “Neo JMB” is now attempting to regroup after being cornered for many years following the Gulshan café attack.

The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit made the claim yesterday following the arrest of six outfit members in the last three months, including the operational commander.

Recently, the CTTC unit managed to arrest the outfit’s top leader Md Yousuf alias Yousuf Huzur, and his associate Jahirul Islam alias Jahir from the capital’s Demra area last Friday, while they were trying to hold a clandestine meeting, said Md Asaduzzaman, chief of the CTTC unit.

“We have managed to destroy the outfit’s network by arresting top leaders in special drives earlier. Even the outfit ameer Mahadi Hasan Jon, who was working to re-organise the outfit from Turkey, was also arrested by that country’s law enforcers based on our information,” he said.

“Jon is now on bail. But we have issued a red alert to Interpol and efforts are underway to bring him back to the country,” said the CTTC chief.

Asaduzzaman said Yousuf, who was arrested earlier by the CTTC in 2017, had taken charge of the outfit following the arrest of Jon.

Yousuf got bail from jail in 2019 and then went to the Middle East along with the outfit’s operational commander Abu Bakkar. There, they met and communicated with the outfit chief Jon, he said.

He said Yousuf was recruiting members through online platforms in the Middle East, and returned home in mid-2022.

Yousuf was involved in construction business and spent all the money for the outfit’s activities.

Upon returning, he planned to launch an attack during Durga Puja, but could not due to effective security measures, claimed Asaduzzaman.

The cops are now trying to learn why the outfit members again gathered at Dhaka, he said.

He said the group might have had plans to carry out sabotage centring the 31st celebration as detonators were recovered from Yousuf.