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Police said they had conducted a series of raids across the country since Tuesday when two suicide bombers killed 11 and injured dozens in the central city of Gazipur and the southeastern city of Chittagong. âWe are conducting raids all over the country to arrest suspected militants. Since Tuesday we have detained more than 200 in connection with the bombings,â national police chief Abdul Kaiyum told AFP.
Police have blamed outlawed Islamic extremist group Jamayetul Mujahideen for a series of attacks since August 17, when the country was hit by 434 small blasts. At least 18 people, including judges, lawyers and police officers, were killed in those attacks. Leaflets bearing the groupâs name and calling for the establishment of Islamic law were found at all the blast sites.
Kaiyum said police were hopeful that the fugitive leader of Jamayetul Mujahideen, Shaikh Abdur Rahman -- an Afghan war veteran who returned home in the late 1990s to form the outlawed group -- would soon be captured. A senior officer of the elite Rapid Action Battalion said apartments, hotels and guest houses in the capital Dhaka had been raided late Friday as part of the search for Rahman.