DHAKA, Aug 18 � Bangladesh�s elite security force RAB today arrested Maulana Mohammad Yahiya, the suspected chief of banned Islamist terror outfit HuJI in the country, along with two other militants from central Kishoreganj district, reports PTI.
�A RAB squad arrested him (Maulana Mohammad Yahiya) and his two accomplices from a passenger bus which was carrying them from Sylhet to Kishorganj,� Commander M Sohail, spokesperson of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), told mediapersons. �We also recovered some (banned) jihadi books, a book on how to produce bombs and three bus tickets from their possession,� Sohail said.
Mohammad Bahauddin, 22 and Yar Mohammad, 50, the two militants accompanying Yahiya, were arrested at a makeshift RAB checkpost near Bhairab Bridge.
Sohail said following the arrest of his predecessor Maulana Farid earlier this year, 46-year-old Yahiya was entrusted to lead the Pakistan-based Harkatul Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) in Bangladesh after it was designated as a �foreign terrorist organization� and �specially designated global Terrorist� group by the US State Department in 2008.
HuJI chief and his two accomplices briefly appeared before the media, but were not allowed to speak to reporters.
RAB said they were on a lookout for Yahiya as part of their anti-militantancy campaign. He was accused in the August 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally and Ramna Batamul blast case of 2001.
Yahiya was also wanted in a number of criminal cases, including planting a bomb at a July 2000 rally of Sheikh Hasina during the earlier tenure of the Awami League-led government. HuJI announced its emergence in Bangladesh in April 1992.
