Police said yesterday they had detained three suspected members of a banned militant group and found a sniper rifle, ammunition, explosives and military suits in a hideout in southeastern Bangladesh.
The raid came days after police busted a militant hideout in the capital Dhaka as security forces stepped up a hunt for Islamist militants behind a spate of recent attacks in the Muslim-majority nation.
Police searched an apartment in the port city of Chittagong based on information from the three members of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen organisation who were caught in an earlier raid, Chittagong city police commissioner Mohammad Abdul Jalil Mondal said.
“A sniper rifle, ammunition, explosives, detonators, army uniforms and bomb-making materials were found in the apartment,” he told a news conference.
The group was believed to be behind a series of recent attacks, including bombings of a Shi’ite shrine and the shooting of three foreigners, two of whom have died.
Bangladesh has suffered a wave of Islamist militant violence in recent months, including a series of attacks on mosques, Christian priests and Hindu temples.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks, including a bomb attack at a mosque of the minority Ahmmadiya Muslim community during prayers on Friday. Police have confirmed the person killed was the bomber himself.
The government has denied that Islamic State has a presence in the country of 160mn people. It blames Islamist political opponents for instigating the violence.
Meanwhile, unidentified persons target crude bombs at the procession of ruling Awami League (AL)-backed mayoral candidate in Bhola municipality on Saturday night.
Witnesses said supporters of AL-backed mayoral candidate Mohammad Moniruzzaman were taking out a procession in the area around 9pm, when unidentified persons exploded two crude bombs. No one was hurt in the incident.
Police recovered two boxes of crude bomb making objects from the area.
In another incident, unidentified persons exploded several crude bombs and torched three motorcycles and an abandoned house of an Awami League (AL) backed mayoral candidate in Naria municipality of Shariatpur district on Saturday night.
AL mayoral candidate Haider Ali claimed that supporters of rebel candidate Shahidul Islam Babu, attacked his house, exploded bombs and torched three motorcycles and the house.
On Saturday, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that Bangladesh is safer than other countries, despite the recent murders of foreigners, death threats to priests and gun and bomb attacks.
“People in Bangladesh are more risk-free than people in any other country in the world,” he said, a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in Rajshahi district.
The blast at the Bagmara Upazila mosque on Friday also left several people injured.
The minister, however, said police were investigating whether it was really a suicide blast.
“We’ve come to know that there were two attackers. One of them fled after the other detonated the bomb.”