DHAKA, 3 March 2007 — Police arrested 17 activists of banned groups as the country’s interim government said it would enact a law soon to provide tough penalties to convicted terrorists.
Ten members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahedeen and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh were held early Thursday during a raid on their hide-out in Rajshahi district, 270 km from Dhaka. Seven others were held elsewhere.
Top leaders of the two groups — Sheikh Abdur Rahman of Jamaat-ul-Mujahedeen 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 of planning and involvement in the explosion of some 500 bombs on Aug. 17 and more bomb attacks the same year, killing at least 30 people.
