Bangladesh nabs fugitive militant after gunfight

DHAKA, July 11 (Reuters) Bangladesh security forces captured a fugitive convicted militant after a gunfight in the capital Dhaka, officials said today.

Asadul Islam Arif, sentenced to death in absentia over a wave of deadly countrywide bombings in 2005, suffered gunshot wounds during the shootout at his hideout in the Mohammadpur area yesterday.

A court in May last year sentenced seven top Islamist militants to death for killing two judges in a bomb attack in southern Jhalakathi town in November 2005.

Six of the convicted, including Shayek Abdur Rahman, supreme leader of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, and Bangla Bhai, chief of the outlawed Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh group, were hanged in March.

The groups are trying to introduce Islamic law in Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim democracy.

REUTERS SSC VV2056