DHAKA, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's anti-crime elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on Tuesday arrested five members of a banned militant outfit in capital Dhaka.
A RAB spokesperson who did not like to be named said the militants are the members of Neo-JMB (an offshoot of the banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh) blamed for the deadly attack on the Spanish cafe in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on July 1, 2016.
He said the arrests were made during raids in places of capital Dhaka Tuesday.
A mobile text message from RAB said two among the arrested militants are engineers.
It said a stash of religious books and bomb making materials were recovered from their possession.
However, the official said the militants also belonged to the "Tamim Chowdhury-Sarwar Jahan group" of Neo-JMB.
Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi-Canadian and Sarwar Jahan, identified as Neo JMB chief who was killed during a police raid on Oct. 8, have been blamed as the masterminds of the brutal attack on the Spanish cafe that left 20 hostages including 18 foreigners dead.
Bangladeshi police have hunted down and killed scores of militants linked to the cafe attack, including Tamim Chowdhury who was killed in a police raid on Aug. 27.
