DHAKA, 19 December 2005 — After suffering several bomb blasts Bangladesh has decided to take stringent steps to curb the menace of terrorism in the country.

As a first but firm step, a law clamping down on the financing of militants suspected of planning and carrying out attacks is all set be passed soon, a bank official said yesterday.

The country has suffered a wave of bombings in recent months, including suicide attacks, and police blame militants for the violence.

“The new law will empower the central bank to suspend or stop operations of any account, for 30 days, in suspicious transactions without any notice,” said Nazmul Hasan, an executive director of the central Bangladesh Bank.

“Now the central bank will be able to detect and curb international terror financing, if any, in the country as well as local terror financing,” Nazmul said. He said the law had already been approved by Finance Minister M. Saifur Rahman and would come into affect soon.

It will be submitted to Parliament through the Law Ministry, and has a strong chance of being passed because the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party holds a two-thirds majority in the legislature. Under the law, owners of accounts used to finance militant attacks faced seven years in jail, Nazmul said.

The new law would replace existing anti-money laundering legislation, which did not have sufficient provisions to curb financing of militant activities, he said.

It would also allow the central bank to set up a Financial Intelligence Unit and a Financial Crime Investigation and Prosecution Office.

At least 30 people have been killed and 150 wounded in suicide bomb attacks across the country since Aug. 17. Authorities have blamed outlawed Islamist group Jamatul Mujahedeen of being involved. They have threatened hundreds more with death.Many of the more than 800 suspected militants detained by police over the months were mainly Jamatul Mujahedeen activists, and among them were students of madrasas, police said.

As the crackdown continues, the authorities have asked madrasa teachers to monitor “movement and behavior” of their students.

This triggered angry protests by madrasa students and teachers, with thousands staging a massive rally in Dhaka yesterday.

“We have gathered here to reaffirm that Islam is a religion of peace and it does not allow, approve or encourage killing of people in the name of religion,” said a protest leader.

Meanwhile, security agents discovered a huge cache of bomb-making materials and more than a dozen homemade bombs during a raid on two homes in northern Bangladesh, an official said. Suspects set off some of the bombs and fled during the raid in Mymensingh, about 112 km north of Dhaka, said Maj. Javed, a spokesman for the Rapid Action Battalion. Nobody was injured in the blasts.

The agents detained seven people for questioning, including the owners of the houses, and recovered at least 11 unexploded bombs from an alley along which the bombing suspects escaped, he said. Another two bombs were found in one of the homes, he added.

In another development, police have arrested a suspected militant in Joypurhat district. Nurul Haq, who allegedly used to work as a bodyguard of a top fugitive leader of the banned group, was arrested late Saturday at his home, the area’s police chief, Abdullah Al-Azad Chowdhury, told reporters.

Police said Haq was wanted in the Aug.17 bombings in neighboring Pabna district, in which more than 430 homemade bombs exploded across the country.