Dhaka : Police in Bangladesh Wednesday said they have arrested two activists of the radical Ansarullah Bangla Team in Dhaka with components for making a remote-controlled aerial surveillance “drone”.
Tanjil Hossain Babu and Golam Maula Mohan were arrested from a house in Jatrabari area of Bangladesh capital Tuesday night, bdnews24.com reported citing detective branch officials.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam, in a press conference Wednesday, claimed that the arrested persons were “active leaders” of the militant outfit.
“They were running jihadi activities at the behest of their guru Maulana Jasim Uddin Rahmani,” said the police official.
He claimed that the two confessed that they were trying to develop quad helicopters or drones capable of flying over 25 to 30-storey buildings.
“They were trying to make a drone or a quad-helicopter to photograph important structures in the country for subsequent attacks.”
The drone is an unmanned aerial surveillance vehicle. It captured public imagination in the last few years after the US widely used these in its “war against terror”.
Apart from military purposes, these aerial devices are also used to assess weather conditions and in rescue operations.
Engineering students in Bangladesh have developed such remote-controlled drones equipped with cameras and tested them out.
But until now, there was no information of radicals trying to use them.
Ansarullah Bangla Team hit the spotlight in late 2013.
Its chief Mufti Jasim Uddin Rahmani was arrested along with 30 other activists from Barguna in August this year.
Police had then said that the outfit was planning to attack police stations and other establishments across the country to start a jihad to overthrow the government.