Bangladesh detains Islamist militant, 25 others

DHAKA, Aug 2 ( Reuters) Bangladesh security forces arrested a leader of an outlawed Islamist group along with 25 suspected associates today in a raid on a religious school, a security official said.

Electric wire, metal pieces and some other materials used in making bombs were recovered from a hideout at the madrasa in Mymensingh town, 130 km from the capital Dhaka.

''We have detained Abdur Rouf, a fugitive leader of the outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and 25 others,'' Colonel Gulzaruddin Ahmed, intelligence commander of elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), told Reuters.

The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, along with the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, another outlawed group, has been blamed for a series of countrywide bomb attacks last year that killed at least 30 people and wounded 150.

The two groups are fighting to turn the mainly Muslim democratic country into a sharia-based Islamic state.

The arrests came after intelligence reports suggested that the Islamists were trying to regroup and launch fresh attacks ahead of national elections in January.

Shayek Abdur Rahman, the chief of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, and Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai, head of the Jagrata Muslim Janata, were both arrested earlier this year and sentenced to death. The sentences have not been carried out yet.

Reuters LL GC1830