Bangladesh detains 11 members of Islamist group

DHAKA, Sep 19 (Reuters) Bangladesh police detained 11 members of a banned Islamist group, including three university teachers, on suspicion of plotting subversive acts against the country, an officer said today.

The members of the Hijbut Tahrir were planning to address a news conference last night in the northern town of Rajshahi when they were picked up.

''They were carrying leaflets calling for Bangladesh to be made into a sharia-based Islamic state,'' he said.

Bangladesh, a Muslim majority nation which follows a secular constitution, has been battling hardline Islamist groups who have carried out a campaign of violence across the country.

Rajshahi, 350 km (230 miles) north of the capital Dhaka where the latest arrests were made, is considered a breeding ground of Islamic militancy.

The leaders of the two biggest Islamist groups, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata, blamed for a wave of bombings in 2005, were arrested and executed in March 2007.

Police say remnants of the two groups, along with militants from other organisations like the Harkatul Jihad and Hijbut Tahrir are regrouping and may launch fresh attacks ahead of national election planned for December.