Bangladeshi police confiscate property of banned Islamist group

Oct 25, 2009, 13:42 GMT

Dhaka - Bangladeshi police on Sunday confiscated the property of controversial Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is suspected to have links with international terrorist outfits, an official said.

'We have seized all possessions of the group from its headquarters in downtown Dhaka,' Paltan Police Station chief Mojibur Rahman told reporters.

The government on Thursday banned Hizb ut-Tahrir and ordered the closure of its website. The group is part of an international network and banned elsewhere, including Pakistan and the United States.

Hizb ut-Tahrir was formed in Jerusalem in 1953 as an international Islamic political party. It began operating in Bangladesh in 2000.

Its banning in Bangladesh came a day after an unidentified group carried out a failed bomb attack targeting a ruling party lawmaker Fazle Noor Tapas.

The government earlier banned four Islamist outfits - Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Harkatul Jihad al Islami, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and Shahadat-e al Hikma - for their suspected militant connections.