Dubbing the arrest of most wanted top Islamist leader Shaikh Abdur Rahman as historic event, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia Thursday said Bangladesh has proved that it could successfully combat terrorism being touted using Islam.

Addressing the nation over radio and television on Thursday evening, the prime minister said "this country can crush any forms of terrorism."

"Many militants with such stature like Shaikh Rahman still remain out of touch abroad, but security forces of Bangladesh have caught the kingpin of bomb terrorism," she said.

She thanked the security forces of the country for doing a gigantic task successfully and also thanked FBI, Interpool and Scotland Yard for cooperating Bangladesh security forces in combating terrorism.

Shairkh Abdur Rahman, top leader of banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), surrendered to the security forces on Thursday in Bangladesh's northeastern Sylhet town.

International community and donor countries were creating pressures on the Bangladeshi government to combat the Islamist terrorists. They were also linking combating terrorism with giving aid for which the government was in real trouble.

Some forces had tried to prove that Zia's government had links with terrorism as it has Islamic allies. These forces were making propaganda campaign in foreign countries against the government and tried to establish that it had allies, who have links with Islamist terrorism.

The United States and Britain Thursday welcomed the capture of JMB supremo Shaikh Abdur Rahman as an encouraging step in the government's response to JMB's campaign of terror.

"We welcome the capture of Abdur Rahman as a significant step forward in the government's response to the JMB's campaign of terror. We look forward to the capture of Bangla Bhai and the other JMB leaders still at large," said a U.S. Embassy spokesman Thursday.

Welcoming the arrest of JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman as an encouraging outcome of the fight against terrorism, a British High Commission spokesperson in Dhaka said the combat should continue with support from all irrespective of party politics so Bangladesh does not succumb to extremism.

After the arrest of Rahman, an Afghan war veteran, people in the Sylhet town started to rejoice it singing and dancing in the streets.

Different political parties, including the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its alliance partner Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh separately took to the streets to celebrate the arrest of Rahman in Sylhet.

Meanwhile, BNP Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuyian at a news conference said with the arrest of Rahman, all networks of JMB broke down and it will no more be able to resort to extremist activities.

Rahman heads the Islamist extremist group JMB widely blamed for strings of blasts and suicide bomb attacks in Bangladesh since August last year, which killed 28 persons and injured hundreds.

The government made several desperate attempts to arrest Rahman since the first countrywide bombings on Aug. 17 last year, but all failed.

The group launched its campaign with bombings to establish Islamic rule in this Muslim majority Bangladesh of 140 million.

They attacked judges and courts because the group considered the courts are the stumbling blocks in their way to establish Islamic rule.

Source: Xinhua