Police arrest suspected Islamic State 'coordinator' in Bangladesh

Police in Bangladesh have arrested a suspected member of Islamic State (IS) in Dhaka, a senior officer said on Sunday, following the detention days earlier of two other suspects, including an IT manager at a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Co.

The suspect picked up on Saturday night was a coordinator for IS in Bangladesh, Shaikh Nazmul Alam, a deputy commissioner of Detective and Criminal Intelligence Division, told Reuters.

"We arrested him with hundreds of training related videos for Islamist extremists, and also a large number of books on al Qaeda and IS translated into Bangla," Alam said.

Police said the detained man was Abdullah al Galib, a former member of Hizbut Tahrir, and a follower of Ansarullah Bangla Team, two militant Islamist groups in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

"We have been following him for a long time and arrested him on Saturday night from Banani, a posh area of the city," Alam said.

He said police suspected al Galib aimed to establish an Islamic caliphate and was plotting with associates to kill "important personalities of the state."

Bangladeshi police have arrested more than a dozen people in recent months suspected of links with Islamic State, amid growing fears that the militant group could be extending its influence among Muslims in South Asia.

It remains unclear whether militants organising under its name are acting on their own or as part of a centralised initiative from the Middle East.

First Published: May 31, 2015 18:37 IST