Three extremists held after plantation raid

Bangladesh police yesterday arrested three suspected Islamist extremists and seized weapons and explosives in a raid on a home-grown group accused of orchestrating deadly attacks.

The three were detained in a pre-dawn raid at a mango plantation in the north-west district of Chapai Nawabganj.

Cdr Abdullah Al Murad, from the rapid action battalion, said the men were from the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a group blamed for a cafe siege in Dhaka last year that left 22 people dead – 18 of whom were foreigners.

“We had information that about 14 to 15 JMB men were having a secret meeting deep inside the plantation. We conducted a raid early in the morning and managed to round up three of them,” he said. The men will be charged with terrorism offences.

“We recovered a semi-automatic pistol, bullets, over a kilo of explosive powder and jihadi books in their possession,” Cdr Al Murad said.

Since the cafe attack in July last year, Bangladesh has killed nearly 70 suspected militants in raids and shoot-outs aimed at the JMB and its leadership.

But the group remains active, with police warning of possible attacks.

The JMB rose to notoriety in the early 2000s with a string of bombings. Five senior figures in the organisation were executed on charges of murder, genocide, torture and rape related to those attacks.

In recent years, prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has blamed the JMB for a series of attacks on foreigners, atheist bloggers, human rights activists and religious minorities.