DHAKA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Police in Bangladesh capital Dhaka have arrested 17 members of a banned militant outfit, Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Masudur Rahman said Tuesday.
The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the DMP made the arrests during raids in Dhaka on Monday night.
Masudur Rahman told Xinhua Tuesday that the militants are the members of the banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh or JMB, blamed for the deadly attack on the Spanish cafe in Dhaka's diplomatic Gulshan zone on July 1, 2016.
He said the CTTC members seized 19 mobile phones, about 234,000 taka (about 2,659 U.S. dollars) and 922 U.S. dollars from the arrestees who had been in contact with one fugitive Rabiul Syed Mostaq bin Arman who inspired them for joining a so-called jihad or holy war after migrating into Saudi Arabia by road from Bangladesh.
In the wake of the Dhaka cafe attack, Bangladesh police have conducted series of large-scale operations against militants and hunted down and killed scores of terror suspects. Enditem
