Shawdesh Desk:

The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police has arrested a Juba Dal leader and his associate in connection with the derailment of a train in Gazipur that left one dead and seven others injured on December 13.

The arrestees are former Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal vice-president and current Juba Dal leader Md Ikhtiyar Rahman Kabir and president of ward 24 of Lalbagh thana in Dhaka Md Emon Hossain, also a JCD leader.

Equipment for cutting railway tracks was recovered from their custody at the time of the arrest.

Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Md Asaduzzaman revealed the information at a press briefing at DMP Media Center on Minto Road in the capital on Monday.

Both were sent to court, he said.

The Special Action Group of CTTC arrested them in a drive in the capital’s Shanirakhra vegetable market area on Sunday evening.

Train services were disrupted for 26 hours due to the incident.

The Additional Commissioner said that during primary interrogation, Kabir confessed that he ordered torching of vehicles in Demra, Jatrabari, New Market, Elephant Road and Bangshal areas of Dhaka.

He claimed responsibility for eight incidents in which arson was planned, directed and financed in these areas, said the DMP official

Besides, the name of Ikhtiyar Rahman Kabir has also come up in the confessional statement of Md Jamal Hossain, who was arrested while trying to set fire to a bus in Bangshal police station area.