2 held for email threat to PM

Singh and Khaleda Zia got death threats ahead of the summit beginning today.

Two persons have been arrested in Dhaka for their suspected involvement in sending out an email death threat to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Bangladesh counterpart Begum Khaleda Zia ahead of the SAARC summit, it was reported on Saturday.

HT Image

Bangladesh's elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on Friday arrested two persons from the city's Mohammadpur area for sending the email that also threatened to blow up the venue of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, The Independent said.

The paper quoted RAB sources saying that the email was sent to some national dailies in the name of one Kamal under the banner of the banned Jaamatul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) on Thursday night.

RAB sources said their squad arrested Suman Sarkar, 30, and Mafidul Islam, 40, and seized a computer from which the e-mail was believed to have been sent, in a raid at 23/15, Tajmahal Road in Mohammadpur in the wee hours of Friday.

RAB personnel interrogated both the arrested persons, sources said.

The bustling Bangladesh capital has been turned into a fortress with tens of thousands of soldiers and armed policemen guarding it ahead of a SAARC summit that was earlier put off for security reasons.

Strict security measures have been put in place around the nine venues for meetings to be held during the summit.

Manmohan Singh arrived on Friday to attend the two-day summit beginning on Saturday.