By Sumi Khan

Dhaka, Aug 11 (IANS): Three members of militant group 'Neo-JMB', including its military wing chief and key bomb expert, who were planning to launch attacks on major targets with bomb-carrying drones, have been arrested from Dhaka's Kafrul area, police said on Wednesday.

The three were identified as Jahid Hasan Raju alias Ismail alias Furkan, Saiful Islam Maruf alias Bashira, and Rumman Hossain alias Fahad alias Abdullah.

A team of the bomb disposal unit arrested the three during a drive on Tuesday, Additional Commissioner, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, and Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) chief Asaduzzaman told IANS.

According to the CTTC, Jahid, born in an impoverished family in Barguna's Patharghata upazila, had completed his graduation but could not finish his master's degree from Dhaka's renowned Jahangirnagar University.

After receiving an invitation from the JMB in 2016, he started militant activities on social media under the name "White Houser Mufti" and started to misguide innocent religious adolescents through the group's then 'Ameer' Musa, a CTTC official said.

As a student of chemistry, he gained expertise in-bomb making and became the key explosives expert in a short time. He has produced IEDs and remote controlled bombs and trained other members too, Asaduzzaman said.

Jahid had plans to work for a major chemical supply company and subsequently make IEDs, collecting explosives from there.

He was involved in the incidents of attacks on police and planting bombs in police boxes. He was also involved in a plan to carry out attacks on important installations and police boxes, by attaching bombs to drones, Asaduzzaman said.

CTTC officials said Saiful was also a bomb expert who received training from Jahid. As per the group's decision, Saiful and Rumman took training in Bandarban and recently rented a house in Tongi to raise funds through mugging.

On June 30, Jahid's family held a press conference where they claimed that he went missing on June 24 after he left his Mirpur house to go to the mosque. A case was filed with Kafrul Police Station in this regard.

Asaduzzaman, however, said that Jahid himself went into hiding to avoid arrest.