4 women militants held in Bangladesh

This article is more than 12 months old

Jul 25, 2016 06:00 am

Police in Bangladesh yesterday arrested four female members of a home-grown militant group blamed for a bloody attack on a cafe in which 22 people were killed, most of them foreigners.

Police believe that Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, a banned group that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, was involved in organising the July 1 attack.

The four women members of the group, aged 18 to 30, who were arrested in the north-western district of Sirajganj, were believed to have been plotting an attack, police said.

In a raid on a rented house, a large amount of grenade-making materials, crude bombs and "jihadi books" were also found.

On Thursday, four other members of the banned group, including a regional head, were arrested. - Reuters