Key Bangla blasts figure captured

Police in Bangladesh said on Wednesday that they had captured seven militants, including the top adviser to an outlawed Islamist group, and seized explosives over the past two days.

Lutfur Rahman, a college teacher and close associate of Bangla Bhai, chief of the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh JMJB, was detained in the northern Bagmara area on Monday.

Police said Rahman was the principal adviser to JMJB, which the government banned in February along with Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen for criminal activities.

The government said Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen was mainly responsible for the wave of suicide bombings that have killed at least 30 people and wounded 150 since August 17. On Tuesday police detained three Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen members and seized 10 kg of explosives from them at Narayanganj, 18 km from the capital, Dhaka.