Reuters, AFP
Dhaka
Police in Bangladesh have arrested eight suspected militants, including the chief of the outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen group, as authorities step up a crackdown on hardline Islamists.
Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 160mn people, targeted the militants after machete-wielding attackers this year hacked to death three online critics of religious extremism, including American blogger Avijit Roy.
Police also seized explosives and other bomb-making materials during overnight raids on the militants’ hideouts in the capital, Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of the detective branch of Dhaka police, said
yesterday.
“During the raids we arrested eight militants, including Abu Talha, the head of Islamist outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen,” he said.
Talha took over as JMB head after police arrested his father and then leader in 2010, while his brother was also arrested in 2005 for being a senior member.
The eight also admitted under questioning that they were planning to attack unnamed high-profile Bangladeshis and key infrastructure in the
country, police said.
Indian security officials uncovered a plot against Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in October, after two members of the group were killed in an explosion while building bombs in the state of West Bengal, which borders Bangladesh.
The banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen was thought to have been lying low after facing action by authorities following its detonation of nearly 500 bombs across the country almost simultaneously on a single day in 2005.
Its militants later carried out attacks on several courthouses, killing 25 people and injuring hundreds.
Although radical Islamist groups have struggled to make headway in Bangladesh, a recent spate of killings of secular bloggers has sparked fears of growing radicalisation among some Bangladeshis.
Bangladesh security forces this month arrested 12 suspected militants, including the chief of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, which claimed responsibility for a string of attacks in Bangladesh and Pakistan, including that on Roy.
In May, Bangladesh also arrested three suspected members of Islamic State, including an IT manager at a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Co in Dhaka, amid growing fears that the militant group could be extending its influence in South Asia.
Police said they were checking if any of the eight people arrested this week had ties to Islamic State.
“We are also checking if they have any connection with Islamic State,” Islam said.
