The Bangladeshi head of a banned Islamic militant group has been arrested at a hideout north of the capital Dhaka, police said Wednesday. Maolana Sheikh Farid, who fought in Afghanistan with the Taliban in the 1990s, is accused of masterminding a string of grenade attacks in 2004 that killed dozens of people, the head of the Rapid Action Battalion told AFP.
Mukhlesur Rahman said that Farid, who was arrested Tuesday night, had been leading the Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami (HuJI) militant outfit for several years. "He is wanted for several high-profile blasts," Rahman said. Farid took over the leadership of the banned group after its original leader Mufti Abdul Hannan was detained in 2007 in connection with a grenade attack that targeted a political rally of the current premier Sheikh Hasina in 2004.
Hannan was convicted and sentenced to death in 2008 for a separate attack on the British High Commissioner to Bangladesh. Farid is also accused of participating in the attack on Hasina that left at least 20 people dead. Hasina, who was the leader of the opposition at the time, was injured by the blast. RAB chief Rahman said Hannan and Farid had also masterminded the grenade attack on a Bengali New Year's concert in a Dhaka park in April 2001 that killed nine and wounded more than 100 people.