Bangladesh arrests three with plotting US attack
BANGADESH: Bang-ladeshi police said Friday they had arrested three
suspected militants in the southeastern city of Chittagong who were
planning to attack US targets in the country's capital.
Deputy Police Commissioner Monirul Islam said Bangladeshi authorities
were given intelligence reports concerning the men's whereabouts
following the arrest of two other suspected militants in the United
States last month.
"We raided a madrassa in Chittagong and arrested three Bangladeshi
men late Thursday evening," he told AFP.
"We believe they have links to the banned (Islamist) group Harkat-ul
Jihad al Islami (HuJI) and were planning to attack American interests in
Dhaka."
A spokesman for the US Embassy in Dhaka said he could not comment on
security matters.
Islam said information about the Bangladeshi suspects had come from
the United States following the arrests last month in Chicago of David
Coleman Headley, 49, a US citizen, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, a
Canadian citizen born in Pakistan.
US authorities have charged the men with plotting terror attacks
abroad, including on the Danish newspaper which published cartoons of
the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.
Headley, 49, a US citizen who changed his name from Daood Gilani in
2006, was arrested by the FBI on October 3 at Chicago's O'Hare airport
before boarding a flight to Philadelphia en route to Pakistan.
Dhaka, Monday, AFP |