Two members of the militant outfit, Ansarullah Bangla Team, who were nabbed on Tuesday night, confessed that they were close to making a remote-controlled pilotless helicopter having a capacity of carrying bombs of 25 to 30kg to hit key government installations, claimed the police.
Tanjil Hossain Babu and Golam Maula Mohan, two active militants, were held from a house in capital's Jatrabari with instruments for making drones, various kinds of electronic devices, and jihadi books, Joint Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Monirul Islam, said told a press conference on Wednesday.
For the first time the police claimed that the radicals were developing drones. Ansarullah Bangla Team came to limelight in the late 2013. One of its top leaders, Jasim Uddin Rahmani, was nabbed along with 30 other activists from Barguna in August this year.
Monirul Islam said, "During a primary interrogation the two admitted that they are carrying out activities as the followers of Maulana Jasim Uddin Rahmani, a key leader of Ansarullah Bangla Team. They were trying to develop quad helicopters or drones capable of flying over 25 to 30-storey buildings to hit targets. As security measures were tightened, they had to resort to the plan of air attack instead of land."
Monirul said the Detective and Crime Information Department of the Police was earlier informed that a group of the militant outfit was planning to make large-scale attack on key establishments or individuals. To arrest the group members, detectives of the police have conducted drives across country including Dhaka city. At last the two key members were nabbed on Tuesday night, he said.
The drive to arrest other members of the militant outfit as per the information of Babu and Mohan is going on, he added.
Monirul claimed that Mohon received higher education in Computer Science from a private university while Babu also has technical expertises.