A Bangladesh court yesterday ordered detention for nine days of suspected militants for interrogation, sources said. The three suspects were arrested in two separate raids in an eastern town of Comilla, officials said. They are alleged members of Jamatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, a banned group blamed for several deadly bombings across the country, Abu Sufian, a security official, said. The suspects were likely to be taken Dhaka for questioning by intelligence agents. Two of the militants were arrested Monday from their hideout in Comilla town, and another was captured later in a separate raid on a house that killed four people. Another suspect who was injured in the raid was being treated at a military hospital in Dhaka, about 88 km west of Comilla.
On Monday, two bombs ripped through a hideout of suspected militants after security agents besieged a two-story building in Comilla, firing guns and tear gas shells to force a surrender. Agents later found the bullet-ridden body of a fugitive militant, who was an alleged bomb expert, on the ground floor of the house, said Lt. Col. Gulzar Uddin Ahmed, an intelligence official who led the operation. The mangled bodies of his wife and two children were found in a separate room. It wasnÂ’t clear if the suspects detonated the bombs in a suicide attempt.
The outlawed group has been blamed for a string of bombings across the country that killed 26 people last year. The groupÂ’s leader, Sheikh Abdur Rahman, and his deputy, Siddiqul Islam, were captured earlier this month.
Also yesterday, security agents acting on a tip-off cordoned off a downtown area in southwestern Khulna city and searched door to door, attempting unsuccessfully to catch two top operatives of the militant group, said Lt. Col. Shamsul Huda, who led the operation.