Bangladesh arrests 14 suspected Islamic extremists

Police in southwestern Bangladesh on Saturday said they had arrested 14 suspected Islamic militants who had links to a banned group.

Superintendent of police Rezaul Karim, of the Jheinidah district, told AFP the men were members of a group called Allahr Dal (Allah's party), a splinter outfit of the banned Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

"They were holding clandestine meetings at a house in Jheinidah town. They rented a corrugated iron hut. We found Islamic religious books," he said.

"They seemed very aware of government security arrangements. It seems they are having some kind of plan. We are interrogating them and we think they are a splinter group of the JMB."

He said Allahr Dal's leader Matin Mehdi had been arrested three years ago for letting off bombs in Jheinidah in 2005, as part of a nationwide plot where 400 blasts went off in one day. Mehdi was now on death row, he added.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh has been hit by a series of attacks by Islamic radical groups in recent years.

The country has been on high alert in the past week after the Supreme Court rejected on Thursday the final appeal of the convicted killers of the country's founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who was assassinated 34 years ago.

Rahman is current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's father and the government feared some quarters would try to disrupt proceedings. However, no incidents were reported.