Dodging the ongoing crackdown in the country after the August 17 countrywide bomb blasts, a good number of Islamic militants are regrouping in the Tangail district, which has already stood out as a hotbed of militants.

A lot of strangers are seen wandering in the remote areas in the district, some 98 kilometers northwest of Dhaka, and "the strangers seem embarrassed when locals want to know their identities," The Daily Star reported Saturday.

Hundreds of members of the banned Islamic outfit the Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) who planned the August 17 blasts which left three people killed and over 150 others injured, have been arrested across the country and they confessed that they took military training in the isolated hilly areas and in a number of madrasas (Islamic schools) in Tangail.

The police claimed that they have no information that militants are hiding in the remote areas in the district. But the law enforcers have beefed up security in jails across the country especially the one in Tangail following the JMB threat on Wednesday to blow up the Tangail District Jail in seven days if police continue arresting or harassing its activists.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) on Friday recovered huge firearms, ammunition and military equipment in a predawn swoop at a remote hilly border area of Naikkhangchhari sub-district of the southeastern Bandarban district which was identified as another hotbed of Islamic militants of the country.

BDR raided a temporary hideout of terrorists in the area and recovered two modern 303 rifles, one AK-47 rifle, 2,500 bullets of 303 rifle, 200 bullets of AK-47 rifle and huge quantity of military equipment.

Sensing the BDR presence in the area, the terrorists reportedly soon fled the hideout, leaving behind their arms and ammunition. The BDR is continuing its drive in the area to arrest the terrorists.

Bangladesh Army and BDR have recovered 500 different types of modern firearms including 100 AK-47 rifles and M-16 rifles and about 100,000 bullets in the border areas during their raids over the last two years.

Source: Xinhua