The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The third anniversary of the countrywide series bombing carried by an extremist outfit that claimed the lives of 2 people and injuring scores of others was observed yesterday.

At least 500 blasts rocked the country on a single day in 2005.

The government launched a crackdown on the Jamaatul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) after they carried out the serial blasts throughout the nation.

Hasan Mahmud Khandaker, Director General of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said, "From the law and order point of view, we have crushed the religious extremist groups though they often tried to regroup in sporadic manner,"

"But for effective elimination of the group we still need to work to wage a social campaign engaging all stakeholders like religious and civil society leaders, teachers and students," he said.

Police said they had intensified vigilance across the country on the third anniversary of the blasts triggered by JMB in 63 out of the 64 districts of the country on August 17 in 2005.

On this day members of the outlawed militant groups Jamaatul-Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, exploded more than 500 small bombs across the country simultaneously, killing six people and wounding dozens.

Only two people were killed on that day when the outfit announced their emergence through the low-intensity blasts but in the subsequent two years they carried out a series of attacks in public places leaving at least 200 people including two judges dead as part of their campaign to impose Islamic rule of their brand in Bangladesh.

The attacks prompted a countrywide massive security clampdown that subsequently saw the arrest of nearly 1,000 militants and execution of six JMB kingpins including its chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his second-in-command Siddikul Islam 'Bangla Bhai' last year.

Top leaders of the two groups were hanged in March 2006. But law enforcement agencies say hundreds of militants remain in hiding and could regroup and strike again.

"We have taken special precautions and put security agencies on high alert to keep the militants at bay," said a senior police officer on Saturday.

"The security has been further tightened ahead of the Muslim Shab-e-Barat (night of fortune) on Saturday," said the officer who asked not to be identified.

According to Hasan Mahmud Khandaker, chief of Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion, the government is confident that this terrorist group can pose no more threats as at least 1,000 of its members have been arrested.

He added that they have successfully dealt with. Over the last two years bomb attacks have become a rarity. The disintegration of JMB though not yet complete, has seen the group "very much under control," Khandaker said.

"The group now poses no real or alarming threat as it has been under control since the executions of its leaders," said the Rapid Action Battalion DG.