Islamist militancy a threat in Bangladesh: US envoy

October 4th, 2009 DHAKA - Over 10 million subscriber identity module (SIM) cards not registered by Bangladesh's six mobile phone operators are being misused for criminal activities and fomenting Islamist militancy, police said. The operators have at least 30 million subscribers of whom 35 percent use unregistered SIM cards, The New Nation newspaper reported.

August 15th, 2009 DHAKA - India and the US shared apprehensions of the rise of Islamist militancy in Bangladesh following the assassination of its founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman this day in 1975, official US documents have revealed. "The religious extremism rattling the nation now was a prospect India and the US had feared soon after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman," The Daily Star newspaper said Saturday, quoting extensively from the just declassified US Office of the Historian documents.

July 30th, 2009 DHAKA - Islamic militancy is showing new signs of life in Bangladesh despite crackdowns. According to a Christian Science Monitor (CSM) report, terrorist groups are showing a persistence and resilience that has left local authorities worried.

May 10th, 2009 DHAKA - After Afghanistan and Iraq, Bangladesh could be the next destination of 'foreign troops' engaged in battling Muslim militants, an Islamist leader has warned here. The charge by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI)'s Ameer (chief) Motiur Rahman Nizami Saturday comes close to a similar statement by former prime minister Khaleda Zia.

May 6th, 2009 DHAKA - A court here Wednesday directed the Bangladesh government to constitute a commission to probe violence against religious minorities in the aftermath of general elections in 2001. Responding to a petition by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), an independent body, a high court bench asked the government to set up the commission within two months, the Star Online reported.

May 3rd, 2009 DHAKA - The US government believes that Islamist militancy is still a major concern in Bangladesh, the US ambassador in Dhaka said Sunday. 'We do have disturbing indications.

May 3rd, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh's opposition leader Khaleda Zia has strongly opposed the setting up of a South Asian task force to combat terrorism, alleging that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was using it as a guise to bring foreign troops into the country. 'There is no militancy in Bangladesh,' Zia asserted at the May Day rally here, claiming that her government (2001-06) had successfully eliminated it.

April 29th, 2009 KUSHTIA - Forty top leaders of Islamist militant outfits are regrouping with their 10,000-plus cadres in south-western Bangladesh in districts bordering India's West Bengal state, authorities have said. Bangladeshi authorities say they gleaned this information after interrogating Hizb-ut-Towhid militants who were arrested in this border town last week.

April 26th, 2009 DHAKA - Over 33 Islamist militant outfits are active in Bangladesh of which only four are banned, the home ministry has indicated. The ministry is working to update information after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina twice rejected its report in recent weeks and constituted a 17-member task force to study measures to counter militancy.

April 23rd, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh has said it will seek help from neighbouring countries in its fight against militancy. A statement in this regard came from State Minister for Home Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj, who is heading a 17-member committee to coordinate action against militants and mobilise public opinion against their activities.

April 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - As the US seeks India's crucial support in countering the threat of Islamist militancy, a leading US think tank says the Manmohan Singh-Obama meeting would demonstrate the US resolve to enhancing ties with New Delhi. But India 'will remain on guard as Obama moves forward in implementing US policy in South Asia', Stratfor, a global intelligence company, said in an analysis as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama met Thursday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in London.

March 17th, 2009 DHAKA - Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has demanded more details and action on a home ministry report that 12 Islamist militant outfits were working unhindered in the country. Hasina was 'disappointed' and the cabinet meeting she chaired Monday sent back the report asking for more information about such organisations and their network, New Age newspaper said Tuesday.

February 25th, 2009 DHAKA - Anyone financing or renting out accommodation to people linked with religious militancy or terrorism will be tried for abetment, a Bangladesh minister has said. 'Providing militants with either assistance - be it accommodation or finance - are offences of similar gravity.

December 22nd, 2008 DHAKA - The chief of Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami (HuJI) and two others of the banned militant outfit were sentenced to death Tuesday for a grenade attack that seriously injured British envoy to Bangladesh Anwar Choudhury and killed three people in May 2004. A Speedy Trial Tribunal in Sylhet in northeastern Bangladesh convicted HuJI chief Mufti Abdul Hannan for the attack, Star Online reported.

December 22nd, 2008 DHAKA - Former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia has been urging people to 'save Islam and the country' by voting for her Islamist alliance nominees in the parliamentary election due Dec 29. 'Save the country and Islam by voting for BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) and its alliance, and don't cast your vote for those who defamed the religion,' Zia said at a large rally at Sylhet in northeastern Bangladesh.