DHAKA: Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) on Monday arrested five members of the Neo-JMB banned militant outfit in Bangladesh. IED-making materials were also seized during multiple raids, a top official said on Monday.

Mohammed Asaduzzaman, chief of the DMP's Counterterrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, said that while three of the militants were arrested on July 8, the remaining two were held on Sunday. The militants who were arrested on Sunday were identified as IED maker Abdullah Al Mamun alias 'David Killer', and Major Osama alias Naeem, a militant trainer.

The raids were carried out on Sunday night at a militant hideout in Araihazar, Narayanganj district, where officials also defused three IED bombs, Asaduzzaman said, adding a huge quantity of explosives were seized from the den. The second raid on a house at Kazipara also in Narayanganj ended at around 4 a.m. on Monday.

According to the CTTC chief, Naeem was also a bomb-making instructor and used to lead the prayers at a mosque. Many books on jihadi literature, IED -making equipment and remotes were recovered during the operation, as per reports.

Last May, the Neo-JMB militants left a remote-controlled IED next to the traffic police box at Siddhirganj in Narayanganj.

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