DHAKA, Jan 20, (RTRS): Bangladesh paramilitary forces on Friday arrested five members of a banned Islamic group accused of a coup attempt last month including a military officer said to be the mastermind, the military said.
Bangladesh’s army said on Thursday it had foiled a coup attempt to topple the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by retired and serving officers in a campaign to introduce sharia law in the majority Muslim country.
The five members of the Islamist group Hizbut Tahrir were arrested in the capital Dhaka, said Mohammad Sohel, director for legal and media of the elite paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion.
Among those arrested was fugitive army Major Ziaul Haque, said to be a mastermind of the plot.
Impoverished Bangladesh has a history of coups, with army generals running the South Asian nation for 15 years until the end of 1990.
Sheikh Hasina took power in early 2009 and has since faced threats from Islamist and other radical groups. A revolt in the country’s paramilitary forces in February 2009 started in Dhaka and spread to a dozen other cities, killing more than 70 people, including 51 army officers.
The revolt was quelled after two days but the country has since been shadowed by fears of further uprisings.