Police spokesman Kamrul Islam said that officers and paramilitary soldiers had fanned out across the country on Thursday night to raid suspected militant hideouts and detain about 1,600 people within 24 hours. In separate incidents last week, two Hindus were killed.
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‘Only a fraction of the people who have been arrested are members of Islamist militant groups, ‘ he said, adding the total number of militants arrested since Friday was 119.
Al Jazeera’s Caroline Malone reports. Islamic State extremists have claimed responsibility for more than 20 of the killings.
Police said that two home-grown militant groups-Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and Ansarullah Bangla Team-were behind the attacks as part of their campaign to impose strict Islamic law on Bangladesh, whose population of 160 million are mostly moderate Muslims. More than 3,000 people, including suspected ordinary criminals with existing warrants against them, were arrested on Saturday after the police launched a controversial anti-militant drive across the Muslim-majority nation.
However, opposition parties immediately accused the police of using the crackdown to suppress political dissent.
According to SITE Intelligence, a US-based monitoring group, IS also claimed responsibility for the hacking deaths of an elderly Hindu priest and a Christian shopkeeper.
Police made a decision to start the nationwide militant’s crackdown on Thursday five days after the brutal murder of Mahmuda Khanam Mitu, wife of Superintendent of Police (SP) Babul Akter in the port city Chittagong.
Bangladesh has been hit by a surge in brutal killings with religious minorities, secular thinkers and liberal activists as the main targets. Police have said they are waiting until investigations are complete before taking any suspects to court.
Days after that attack, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina vowed to root out radicals and defeat their bid to establish Islamic rule in the country.
She said the authorities “will do whatever is needed to stop the secret killings”, which she blamed on a plot by opposition Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami.
The government accuses rival political party Bangladesh Nationalist Party and other Islamic fundamentalist groups for the attacks. The crackdown is expected to last at least one week.
National police chief Shahidul Hoque defended the crackdown, saying only those suspected of wrongdoing were being picked up.
None of those arrested is believed to be a high-level operator who might have organized or ordered attacks, police said.
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However, the government has consistently denied that IS is present in Bangladesh, and says domestic militants are responsible.
