3 Bangladeshi apex court lawyers arrested on militants financing charges

Bangladeshi anti-crime elite force Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) has arrested three apex court lawyers for their alleged funding of a local militant group -- Shaheed Hamja Brigade.

As part of operations to disrupt the flow of money to terrorist groups, RAB spokesman Colonel Miftah Uddin Ahmed told the journalists at a press conference on Wednesday "the lawyers were arrested on Tuesday night from capital Dhaka after initial investigators found their connections with the militants."

He said the arrestees Barrister Sakila Farjana, Advocate Liton and Advocate Bapon are Supreme Court lawyers.

The trio have given 10.8 million taka (1.38 million U.S. dollars) to the militant outfit Shaheed Hamja Brigade, he added.

The arrests happened days after three people, including a British member of an outlawed Islamist group, have been arrested in connection with murders of two bloggers in Bangladesh.

Four bloggers were killed in less than six months in the Muslim- majority Bangladesh.