The arrestees are Dhaka Central Jail guard Faruq Sarker, 27, Delwar Hossain, 26, Abu Rashed alias Sujon, 26, Plabon Sarkar Khokon, 30, and Ainul Hassan Sohel, 27.

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) on suspicion held one of the five at about 11:45am on September 1. He was loitering on Nazimuddin Road, adjacent to the jail.

Later, following up the leads obtained from him, the Rab-2 team arrested the other four and found two firearms in their possession. "Faruq had a pistol in his trousers pocket while Delwar had a revolver strapped around his waist," reads the first information report (FIR) filed against them.

The arrestees had been handed over to Kotwali police, who took each of them on a day's remand for quizzing under firearms act.

Investigating Officer Makbul Hossain last night said the quizzing was still going on. He said he was enquiring about backgrounds of

the other arrestees but no criminal records have yet been found against them.

"They will be sent to the jail tomorrow [today], and we may seek further remand," Makbul, a sub-inspector, told The Daily Star.

Meanwhile, the jail authorities said they will have a probe into the matter.

"We are still in the dark as to how he got the arms," said Senior Superintendent of Jail AKM Manjurul Karim adding that departmental actions will be taken against him.