'5,000 militants active in Bangladesh'
DHAKA: As Bangladesh prepares to hang six militants convicted of
masterminding fatal bombings, a close associate arrested last week said about
5,000 members of banned Islamist groups were still active in the country.
Mostafizur Rahman Shahin, detained in northern district Pabna on March 14, gave
the information under interrogation by security and intelligence agencies,
police said on Wednesday.
Shahin confessed to being a senior member of the outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen,
led by Shayek Abdur Rahman. Another banned militant group active in Bangladesh
is Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, headed by Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai.
Both Bangla Bhai and Shayek, along with four other Islamist militants, are
likely to be executed within weeks, police said.
They were sentenced to death last year for masterminding countrywide bomb
attacks in late 2005, which killed at least 30 people. The victims included
judges, lawyers and police.
The Islamists are fighting to introduce sharia law in mainly Muslim Bangladesh,
and threatened to strike again even if their leaders were hanged, police said.
Police said security was tightened around the country of more than 140 million
in view of the threat, but gave no details.
Bangladesh's army-backed interim government, headed by former central bank
chief Fakhruddin Ahmed, is planning to enact a law to ban any group linked to
Islamist militants or other terror groups.
Shahin told interrogators Islamist militants in Bangladesh received money from
sources overseas, including in the United States and Saudi Arabia, police said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1788338.cms?ticker=1
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