Dhaka: Counter Terrorism (CT) Unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) claimed to have arrested a leader of Neo-JMB (Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh) in Dhaka.

The arrestee is Maulana Abul Kashem, in his sixties, a spiritual leader of Neo-JMB.

According to a text message from DMP, tipped off, a team of CTTC unit conducted a drive in different parts of Dhaka and arrested him on Thursday night.

The message says Abul Kashem is an amir of a part of JMB.

Mohibul Islam Khan, deputy commissioner of the Dhaka police counter-terrorism unit, said Kashem had inspired the attack on a Dhaka cafe last July in which 22 people including 18 foreign hostages were killed.   

‘He was the spiritual leader of the JMB,’ Khan told AFP.

‘In our primary investigation we have found all (the extremists) were inspired by him.’

Khan said Kashem had met the alleged mastermind of the cafe attack Tamim Chowdhury ‘several times’.

Another counter-terrorism police officer Sanwar Hossain said Kashem had headed an Islamic seminary before joining the JMB in 1998.