Bangladesh police detain ten Islamist militants

DHAKA, Mar 2 (Reuters) Bangladesh police have arrested ten activists of banned Islamist groups on the heels of the country's interim government saying it will enact a law soon providing tough penalties to convicted terrorists.

The ten members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh were held on Wednesday night during a raid on their hideout in Rajshahi district, 270 km northwest of the capital, Dhaka.

Top leaders of the two groups -- Shayek Abdur Rahman of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai of the other group -- are facing death, along with four others, after being convicted in trials over countrywide bomb blast in 2005.

They were convicted for planning and involvement in the explosion of some 500 bombs across the country on August 17 and more bomb attacks through rest of that year, killing at least 30 people and wounding 150.

An adviser to the interim government, Mainul Husein, said on Wednesday that a new law was being framed to ban all organisations if they were found to be linked to terrorism in any form.

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