bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

Bangladesh police said on Friday they had arrested the “spiritual leader” of a banned Islamist outfit alleged to have carried out a series of deadly attacks in the country.
Police detained Maolana Abul Kashem, 60, from a hideout in the capital on Thursday night after an investigation linked him to the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) group.
Mohibul Islam Khan, deputy commissioner of the Dhaka police counter-terrorism unit, said Kashem had inspired the attack on a Dhaka cafe last July in which 22 people including 18 foreign hostages were killed.
“He was the spiritual leader of the JMB,” Khan said. “In our primary investigation we have found all [the extremists] were inspired by him.”
Khan said Kashem had met the alleged mastermind of the cafe attack Tamim Chowdhury “several times”. Bangladesh has suffered a spate of attacks on secular activists, foreigners and religious minorities in recent years.
Dhaka cafe siege shows fault lines of Bangladesh’s long history of political strife
Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have claimed responsibility for several of the attacks, but Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s secular government has pinned the blame on local extremists.
Bangladeshi security forces have launched a nationwide crackdown on Islamist extremist groups since the cafe attack, arresting scores of suspected extremists.
Several top leaders of the JMB have also been killed, most in what police said were shoot-outs. Rights groups have voiced suspicions these may have been staged. Another counter-terrorism police officer Sanwar Hossain said Kashem had headed an Islamic seminary before joining the JMB in 1998.


FBI says it disrupted potential New Year’s Eve attack inspired by Islamic State

Increased police presence in Sydney for New Year’s Eve following Bondi terror attack

Israel seals off Palestinian village in West Bank after deadly attack

9 held in Italy over US$8.2 million charity scam linked to Hamas

Islamic militancy

‘Spiritual leader’ of Dhaka cafe attackers is arrested by Bangladesh police

Bangladeshi security forces stand guard as they seal off a street in 2016. Photo: EPA

Bangladeshi police kill Islamist militant believed to be behind Dhaka cafe massacre

Bangladeshi police raided a militant hideout in the capital on September 2, killing a suspected top Islamist extremist who helped plan the deadly attack on a cafe in Dhaka. Photo: AFP

Bangladeshi police secure a street in front of the building during a raid in Dhaka, on September 2, 2016. Bangladesh police raided a militant hideout in the capital on September 2, 2016, killing a suspected top Islamist extremist who helped plan the deadly attack on a cafe in Dhaka that left 22 people dead in July. / AFP PHOTO / RAJIB DHAR

News

Asia

South Asia