Bangladesh Islamist leader held in India - reports
DHAKA, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The head of a Bangladeshi Islamist group blamed for a wave of bomb attacks has been arrested in a neighbouring Indian state, newspapers said on Monday.
Shayek Abdur Rahman, supreme leader of the outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen group, was picked up from a hideout in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal on Sunday, The New Age and Amar Desh newspapers said, citing intelligence sources.
There was no official Bangladeshi confirmation of the reports, and Bangladeshi interior ministry officials could not be reached for comment.
Indian police, when asked whether Rahman had been held in West Bengal, confirmed they had detained a man but did not say whether he was the fugitive Bangladeshi Islamist leader.
"We have picked up a man on Sunday. We are still verifying the whole thing and who he is," police Inspector-General Raj Kanojia said by telephone from Kolkata, capital of West Bengal, which shares a large, porous border with Bangladesh.
Bangladeshi newspapers said Indian authorities had taken Rahman, who was picked up from the southern district of 24 Parganas in West Bengal state, to New Delhi for interrogation.
Security forces in Bangladesh last week launched a massive hunt on Bangladesh's western borders after an intelligence tip-off that Rahman was in the area, along with Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai, chief of another Islamic group, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh.
Both have been missing since nearly 500 small bombs exploded simultaneously across the country on Aug. 17 last year.
Authorities have blamed the bombings and subsequent suicide attacks on the two groups, which are campaigning for the introduction of sharia law in Bangladesh, a mainly-Muslim democracy. (Additional Reporting by Kamil Zaheer in NEW DELHI)
Shayek Abdur Rahman, supreme leader of the outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen group, was picked up from a hideout in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal on Sunday, The New Age and Amar Desh newspapers said, citing intelligence sources.
There was no official Bangladeshi confirmation of the reports, and Bangladeshi interior ministry officials could not be reached for comment.
Indian police, when asked whether Rahman had been held in West Bengal, confirmed they had detained a man but did not say whether he was the fugitive Bangladeshi Islamist leader.
"We have picked up a man on Sunday. We are still verifying the whole thing and who he is," police Inspector-General Raj Kanojia said by telephone from Kolkata, capital of West Bengal, which shares a large, porous border with Bangladesh.
Bangladeshi newspapers said Indian authorities had taken Rahman, who was picked up from the southern district of 24 Parganas in West Bengal state, to New Delhi for interrogation.
Security forces in Bangladesh last week launched a massive hunt on Bangladesh's western borders after an intelligence tip-off that Rahman was in the area, along with Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai, chief of another Islamic group, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh.
Both have been missing since nearly 500 small bombs exploded simultaneously across the country on Aug. 17 last year.
Authorities have blamed the bombings and subsequent suicide attacks on the two groups, which are campaigning for the introduction of sharia law in Bangladesh, a mainly-Muslim democracy. (Additional Reporting by Kamil Zaheer in NEW DELHI)
posted by Marko at 1/23/2006 02:16:00 AM
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