The law enforcers bean a drive to arrest Shaikh Abdur Rahman, the chief of the banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh and main suspect of the August 17 blasts.(New Age)

The countrywide series of blasts killed two persons and injured more than 150 people.

A Satkhira court also issued a warrant of arrest against Abdur Rahman, accused in all the five cases filed in connection with the blasts in the district headquarters on August 17, the police said.

The police sources claimed all the arrested admitted that Abdur Rahman was their leader who held meetings with them in Satkhira, a couple of months ago.

Two of the arrested, Moniruzzaman Munna and Nasiruddin Dafadar, also said the same when they were questioned in the joint interrogation cell in Dhaka.

The investigators in Dhaka have almost completed interrogating the suspected members of the banned outfit.

Seven persons, including the former director of the Islamic Foundation Bangladesh, Fariduddin Masuod, have been quizzed in the interrogation cell.

The New Age correspondent in Barisal said the police claimed that they had cracked the mystery of the blasts.

The police said the arrested Sultanuddin Sujan alias Abu Solaiman, a blind student of Darus Salam orphanage-cum-madrassah at Kashipur in the city and also office assistant of Al-Ikram Islamic Samaj Kalyan Sangstha, made a statement in magistrates court on Thursday.

In his statement, Solaiman said the members of Al-Ikram Islamic Samaj Kalyan Sangstha were involved in the blasts in Barisal.

‘A meeting was held in the organisation office on College Row on August 16 and it was attended by its director Ziaur Rahman, manager Golam Morshed Chowdhury Reza, 28, and accountant, Jalal Arefin, 26.’

The meeting discussed the plan in details, date and the schedule of planting bombs on August 17.

After executing the plan, another meeting was held at the same place in the afternoon on August 17 to review the situation and to plan future activities, Abu Solaiman told the court.

The police took Solaiman, along with two others, into their custody showing them arrested in another case regarding the blasts.

The police said they would be sent to Dhaka on Saturday for interrogation by the cell.

In Jhenidah, the banned Islamist outfit members have been sending leaflets to different personalities threatening them with death if they do not give up non-Islamic activities.

In Rajshahi, the police were yet to make any headway and the officials refrained from making any comments.

An official of the police administration said the eight arrested militants were now on police remand and are interrogated by investigators.

In Khulna, the banned outfit members circulated leaflets Thursday night admitting their involvement in the August 17 blasts and it panicked city dwellers and created uproar in the police and intelligence agencies.

Witnesses said the militants, in a white microbus, distributed more than 150 leaflets in front of the IFIC Bank on Khan-e-Sabur Road.

The police could not arrest anyone involved which raised questions about the role of the police and intelligence agencies.

The leaflets highlighted the history and the emergence of the banned outfit and personal information of several of its leaders, including Abdullah-Hel-Baki, Asadullah Al Galib and Bangla Bhai.