Six suspected JMB militants arrested

DHAKA: Security officials in Bangladesh’s capital have arrested six suspected members of the banned Islamist group Jamaatul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) as part of a crackdown on radical Islamists.

Mufti Mahmud Khan, spokesman for the elite Rapid Action Battalion, told a news conference on Wednesday the men were arrested in separate raids in Dhaka as authorities stepped up the crackdown following the July 1 attack on a café that left 20 people, including 17 foreigners, dead.

A few days after that attack, suspected JMB members targeted an Eid congregation outside Dhaka, killing three people. The Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility for the July 1 attack but authorities rejected it, saying it the JMB was behind it.

During the overnight raids, security officials also recovered two pistols, five grenades, 12 small bombs, 13 detonators, power gel, gunpowder, four meat cleavers and five knives from the possession of the arrested men.

Mustafizur Rahman, one of the arrested men, was described to journalists as the administrator of the website “At-Tamkin” that officials said is run by the JMB. The other arrested young men are members of JMB’s “sleeper cell”, Khan said.

Rahman was involved with a group, Dawatul Islam Bangladesh, that recruits members for JMB, he said.