Six Islamists with explosives held in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Jan 7 (Reuters) Security forces arrested six Islamists in possession of a large quantity of explosives in a town near the Bangladesh capital, officials said today.

''The militants were arrested with 31 packets of high explosives from hideouts in Narayanganj town 16 km from the capital Dhaka late yesterday,'' said an official of the elite Rapid Action Battalion.

In November, the Supreme Court upheld death sentences imposed on six top Islamist militants found guilty of killing 30 people in Bangladesh in 2005.

Despite such prosecutions, some banned Islamists groups have tried to regroup to achieve their aim of turning Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim democracy, into a sharia-based Islamic state.

The Supreme Court had upheld death sentences passed by a lower court on six militants including Shayek Abdur Rahman and Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai, respectively heads of the Jamaat-ul Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh Islamist groups.

The court convicted the militants of killing 30 people and wounding about 150 between August and December 2005. The death sentences have yet to be carried out.

REUTERS PB RN2113