Bangladesh's most wanted militant arrested

Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion has arrested chief of a banned militant group along with his two accomplices early Thursday for their involvement in a deadly bomb blast case in Dhaka in 2001, an elite force spokesman said. The spokesman who preferred to be unnamed told Xinhua that the banned militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) planned, carried and exploded bombs in capital Dhaka's Ramna Park where thousands of people gathered to celebrate Bengali New Year on April 14, 2001. The bomb blast left at least eight people killed and many more others injured at the main Bengli new year celebration program. "HUJI chief Maulana Mohammad Yahia along with his two accomplices were arrested from a passenger bus on a highway in northeastern Bangladesh as the elite force had a tip-off that the trio are shifting their hideouts," the Rapid Action Battalion spokesman said. He said the Huji chief, one of the most wanted militants, is also accused in several other major militant attacks, including the Aug. 21, 2004 grenade attack. About a dozen of grenades were exploded while President of the then opposition party Awami League and now Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was about to complete her speech at an anti-terrorism rally in front of the party's headquarters on Aug. 21, 2004. Hasina narrowly survived in the attacks but her eyes and ear were injured. A total of 24 people including wife of current Bangladeshi President were killed and hundreds of others wounded in the attack.