The detentions of thousands of suspected criminals across Bangladesh led to the arrest of a suspected member of a banned militant group accused of violently attacking a publisher last year, police said Thursday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the raids are part of an effort to root out militants blamed for a wave of deadly attacks against atheists and religious minorities, even though the vast majority of those detained are accused of petty crimes and not radicalism. The raids have been criticized as a pretext for intimidating political opponents, with the main opposition party saying thousands of its members were rounded up.
Mohammed Sumon Hossain, a suspect presented before court Thursday, was suspected of participating in an attack against publisher Ahmed Rashid Tutul in his Dhaka office in October, the head of police counter-terrorism operations told reporters. Tutul survived the attack, in which two of his friends were also injured, and later was given asylum in Norway. Authorities identified Hossain as a suspect while questioning two others picked up Monday on the outskirts of Dhaka, according to the counter-terrorism chief, Monirul Islam. “Information that we got from them led to his arrest last night,” Islam said Thursday. “We acted upon specific information we got from them.”
Islam said Hossain used several names while operating as a member of the banned Ansarullah Bangla Team, which has claimed responsibility for killing several atheist bloggers and threatened to target more.
The suspect had worked in a private company in the southeastern city of Chittagong. Last month, police had included Hossain’s name on a list of suspected militants believed to have been involved in the deadly attacks on atheist bloggers, online activists, writers, members of religious minorities and foreign aid workers.

Source: Arab News