DHAKA, 25 August 2005 — Police yesterday arrested 15 more suspected activists of a banned group blamed for the serial bombings which rocked Bangladesh last week. Two people were killed and 100 others were injured in the serial bombings which rocked Bangladesh last week, sources said.
No one claimed responsibility for the blasts aimed at spreading fear and panic, police said. Copies of a leaflet found at the bomb sites carried a call by Jamatul Mujahedeen for Islamic rule in Bangladesh. “We are looking for the mastermind, his associates and some 500 activists who are believed to have been involved in the coordinated bombings,” a police officer in Dhaka said.
Hundreds of bombs went off nearly simultaneously across Bangladesh last Wednesday, hours after Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia had left for a visit to China. She came back cutting short the trip, and ordered an immediate crackdown on the suspected militants. Mashud, who heads Islamic organizations that finance hundreds of madrasas in Bangladesh, is also suspected of having financed the Jamatul Mujahedeen.
“We cannot disclose everything now for the sake of the investigation,” an official said.
So far more than 170 extremists have been detained. Many of them told police they were members of the Jamatul Mujahedeen group and acted under orders from group leaders, especially the fugitive Shaikh Abdur Rahman.
Rahman, on the run along with close associates, is thought to have fled the country. Police could not confirm this. Analysts say the government should act immediately and decisively to crush the militants.
