Bangladesh detains four for plot against leaders

DHAKA, Aug 15 (Reuters) Bangladesh police detained four people after the main opposition said they were planning to kill the daughters of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during ceremonies today to mark the anniversary of his assassination.

The Awami League said the four including a woman planned to kill its chief and Mujib's daughter, Sheikh Hasina, and her sister Sheikh Rehana during a wreath-laying ceremony at the independence leader's former house in Dhaka.

''The enemies of the country's independence are still trying to kill the daughters of Bangabandhu (Mujib),'' said Abdul Jalil, general secretary of Awami League.

Mujib who led Bangladesh to independence from Pakistan in 1971 was killed along with most his family members in a military coup on Aug. 15, 1975, while he was president of the republic.

''We are examining whether the four people detained yesterday are linked to any extremist group,'' said a police officer. One of them was a student of a madrasa, or an Islamic school, he said.

Islamist militants, including madrasa students and members of outlawed groups Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, carried out countrywide bomb attacks between August and December 2005, killing at least 30 people and wounding 150.

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

Security was tight in Dhaka where the Awami League had called for a strike to mark the anniversary of Mujib's killing. Schools and many offices were shut in the city.

Sheikh Hasina, a former prime minister, escaped an apparent attempt to kill her when several grenades exploded at a Dhaka rally she addressed on Aug. 21 in 2004.

The grenades killed 23 Awami leaders and workers and wounded about 150, according to police.

REUTERS MS BST1232