Bangladeshi security force have arrested three senior Islamic militants and found two large caches of weapons in a series of raids overnight.
A spokesman for the elite Rapid Action Battalion says one of those detained is the military head of the outlawed Islamic group Jamaat-ul-Mujahedin, Ataur Rahman Sunny, who was arrested in Dhaka. His group wants to impose strict Islamic law in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
In separate raids in Dhaka and the southwestern city of Chittagong, security forces seized large caches of arms and explosives. The hauls included dozens of grenades and pistols, more than 50 kilograms of explosives and other bomb-making material.
These raids were part of a nationwide hunt for Islamic militants blamed for a series of bombings since August that killed more than 20 people, including judges, lawyers, police and journalists.
