Bangladesh police arrest 11 suspected Islamic militants

Sep 19, 2008, 5:00 GMT

Rajshahi, Bangladesh - Police in the northern Bangladeshi city of Rajshahi arrested 11 members of the radical Islamist organization Hijbut Tahrir as they were preparing to address a news conference, local officials said Friday.

'The suspected Islamic militants have been detained as they arrived at the local press club to announce the group's future political programmes to the newsmen,' said city assistant police commissioner Ekramul Hossain.

The men were arrested as suspected militants and accused of plotting subversive acts against the country, Hossain said after their detention late Thursday night.

Those arrested included three university teachers and eight senior students of the local madrasas, the Islamic religious schools.

The authorities also confiscated a huge number of party leaflets from the detainees and seized a microbus and a dozen cell phones from them.

A senior official in the city mayor's office said carrying publicity leaflets with anti-government statements on them violated the prevailing emergency rule in the country.

Detained university professor Dr Golam Mawla denied that they were militants and said the members of the group were arrested illegally.

Local police said the detained were under interrogation by intelligence agencies.

Rajshahi, a city located 340 kilometres north of the capital Dhaka, is considered a breeding ground of Islamic militancy in the impoverished Muslim majority country.