DHAKA: Police in Bangladesh have arrested eight suspected militants, including the chief of the outlawed Jamaatul Mujahideen, as authorities step up a crackdown on hard-line groups.

The country 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 material during overnight raids on the militants’ hideouts in the capital, Monirul Islam, Joint Commissioner of the detective branch of Dhaka police, said on Tuesday.

“During the raids we arrested six militants, including the head of Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen,” he said.

They were plotting to “kill important personalities of the state and free their leaders from jail”, the official added.

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.

The banned Jamaatul 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 in 2005.

Its militants later carried out attacks on several courthouses, killing 25 people and injuring hundreds.

Bangladesh security forces this month arrested 12 suspected militants, including the chief of Al Qaeda in the subcontinent, which claimed responsibility for a string of attacks in Bangladesh and Pakistan, including that on Mr Roy.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2015

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