Bogra :The police Sunday night arrested a suspected member of the Islamist organisation, Jamaatul Mujahidin, in possession of a large amount of chemical substance and other materials in a house at a Gabtali village in Bogra.

The arrested, Shafiqullah, claimed himself an activist of the Tabligh Jamaat and cloth trader. The police suspected him to be an activist of the Jamaatul Mujahidin, on the prowl in the region.

The police said they came to know of one Joynal while searching for the bomb attackers on a jatra pandal at village Lakshmikala of Shahjahanpur upazila at night on January 15 in which one was killed and dozens of others were injured.

When we raided Joynal’s house in the dead of night, he could get away,’ said the Gabtali police officer-in-charge. ‘But his wife and another young man, Shafiqullah, was picked up from the house.’

He said the police raided the house after Shafiqullah had given contradictory statements. The police found a carton under the cot which contained 32 boxes of different types.

‘The boxes are full of picric acid, transparent adhesive tape, thin wire, electric circuits, papers to test chemical substance and other such materials which are used in the making of bombs,’ he said.

Sources in the intelligence agencies said picric acid is used to prepare explosive. They said the electric circuits could be used to make remote controls for bomb.

During the interrogation, Shafiquallah told the police he had been introduced to Joynal in a gathering in his native district, Narayanaganj, 4 to 5 months ago. ‘I came here to visit Mahasthangarh and Joynal took me to his house,’ Shafiqullah was quoted by an intelligence agency official as saying.

Joynal’s wife, Monwara, said Shafiqullah went to a nearby village, Chaksadhu a couple of years ago, but went away after staying for a few days in the village. She said Shafiqullah went back two months ago to stay at a madrassah.

Monwara told the police, on hearing his arrival, she sent her child to Shafiqullah to learn how to read Arabic. She claimed that her husband, Joynal, was busy with agricultural activities throughout Sunday.

She said all the materials the police recovered from her house belonged to Shafiqullah. ‘He kept them in my house’

The police said the arrested in connection with the bomb blast in Dinajpur some months ago name some people of which Joynal was one.

The Jamaatul Mujahidin activists, who sustained injuries in the blast, later told the police that they had an associate at Gabtali in Bogra. ‘All this led us to raid the house of Joynal,’ said a police official.

A case was filed with the Gabtali police.