4 Bangladesh militants arrested for India blasts

The Bangladeshi police on Thursday arrested four militants, including a key leader, closely linked to two operatives of a banned outfit allegedly involved in carrying out blasts in India two years ago.

Elite anti-crime rapid action battalion (RAB) arrested the four militants form capital’s Khilgaon and Fakirapul areas.

The militants belonged to Jamaatul Islam Mujaheedeen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned outfit which the police say is behind a series of deadly attacks carried out on the country’s secularists and liberals for the last three years.

“We have arrested four JMB operatives last night. One of them is the Dhaka district chief of the outfit,” said RAB spokesman Mufty Mahmud Khan said.

Noting that the details of the arrest will be disclosed later, Mr Khan said JMB’s alleged Dhaka chief Abdul Baten, alias Khairul Islam, and three others were arrested in two separate raids at the capital’s Khilgaon and Fakirapul areas.

“We suspect they were poised for a fresh terrorist attack,” Mr Khan said.

Mr Khan also said Baten was closely linked to fugitive JMB operatives Rahmatullah Masud Sajid and Mohammad Naim, the two suspects of blasts in West Bengal’s Burdwan district two years ago.

On October 2, 2014 two suspected JMB operatives were killed and another injured in an explosion at a house in Kolkata’s Burdwan area.