Police arrest 4 Pak-trained IS militants in Bangladesh

Dhaka, Jan 19: Four alleged Islamic State militants, including its regional coordinator who frequently travelled to India, Pakistan and other countries, have been arrested here for plotting to attack key installations and turn Bangladesh into a Caliphate State, police said today.

The four, trained in Pakistan, were arrested during overnight raids in the Jatrabari and Khilkhet areas of the capital, Dhaka.

"Yes, the IS coordinator and the three others have been arrested," a police spokesman told PTI.

The IS coordinator has been identified as Shakhawatul Kabir who is also the regional commander of the militant group in Bangladesh. The other three men arrested are Md Anwar Hossain, Md Rabiul Islam and Md Nazrul Alam.

The police said the arrested militants have confessed that they are members of Islamic State and had plans to create an anarchic situation attacking Bangladesh's key installations as part of their mission to turn the country into a Caliphate State with IS financial and weaponry support.

"The aim of the attacks was to establish a caliphate state in Bangladesh," DMP's deputy commissioner Sheikh Nazmul Alam told reporters.

"They all confessed their links to the ISIS (while) one of them Sakhawatul Kabir alias Kabir was found to the networks coordinator in Bangladesh," Alam said.

The suspected coordinator Kabir told police that he and the other three men had received training in Pakistan, Alam said. They were produced before a Dhaka court which ordered them to be remanded in police custody for five days for further interrogations.

PTI