DHAKA, Dec 10: Bangladesh’s elite security force said on Saturday it had arrested the main supplier of explosives to an extremist group waging a suicide bombing campaign.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) also said it had seized a huge cache of explosives and bomb-making equipment sufficient to make 200 powerful bombs.

“We have arrested Tariqul, 28, who we believe is the main supplier of explosives to the Jamayetul Mujahideen,” a senior RAB official said.

“He’s being interrogated and information has already helped us seize explosives across the country,” the official said.

Police have linked the outlawed group to a series of nationwide blasts since August and a new suicide bomb campaign that has claimed 21 lives in the past two weeks.

Thousands of police and all 10 battalion of the RAB, set up a year ago, have been making nationwide raids to hunt the members of the group and its fugitive leader Shaikh Abdur Rahman.

In a statement, the RAB said it had seized 12.5 kilograms of explosives, 13 kilograms of bomb-making equipment, timers, batteries and detonators during a raid late on Friday at the hideout of a Jamayet activist in Tangail.

The explosives were enough to make at least 200 powerful bombs, a RAB official said.

The RAB said it arrested five ‘active members of Jamayet’ in a series of raids during the night in Rajshahi district.—AFP