Investigators on Sunday remanded in custody a key suspect linked to last year's deadly cafe siege in the Bangladeshi capital that left 20 civilians dead, police said.
A Dhaka court granted a plea by investigators for custodial interrogation of Sohel Mahfuz, who is believed to have supplied arms and explosives to the Islamists who attacked the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan diplomatic area in July last year, police spokesman Masudur Rahman said.
The jihadists killed nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, a US citizen, two Bangladeshi nationals, and two policemen during a 19-hour siege at the cafe.
Army commandos killed five militants and one of their associates when they stormed the restaurant to free the hostages.
Mahfuz, who is also wanted in a bomb blast case in the Indian state of West Bengal, was arrested on Saturday along with three other suspected members of banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in the northern Bangladeshi district of Chapainawabganj, Rahman said.
"The court granted investigators plea for interrogation of the suspect for seven days," the spokesman said, adding that the suspect is also believed to be one of the planners of the cafe attack.
The Islamic State militant group claimed credit for the assault in Dhaka but investigators said the home-grown JMB had carried it out.
Bangladesh launched a clampdown against the militants in response to the restaurant attack and killed nearly 70 suspected members of the banned Islamist group in the past year.
The Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's diplomatic area was attacked last July.
