DHAKA, May 2 (Reuters) - Bangladesh's former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia said on Saturday that there were no active Islamist militants in the country. Outlawed militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), which wants to turn the country into a sharia-based Islamic state, killed some 30 people and wounded 150 others in series of bomb attacks in late 2005, police said. The radical Islamist movement has been quiet since six top commanders were executed in 2007. But intelligence officials have said they were regrouping and might strike again. "We have routed Islamist groups through countrywide drive. Now there are no more active Islamists militants in the country," said Khaleda, who was prime minister between 2001-06. Sheikh Hasina's government that took office on Jan. 6 following a massive win in an election that routed Islamist parties and their allies has been conducting a sweep against Islamist groups, which it suspects may have been involved in a mutiny at the Dhaka headquarters of a paramilitary unit in February. The February 25-26 mutiny killed nearly 80 people, mostly army officers commanding the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) troops, and raised fears of more violence to come. Security forces raided several hideouts, seized explosives and detained nearly 200 Islamists militants since then. Khaleda, also leader of the opposition alleged that the mutiny was a conspiracy to destroy the armed forces of the country. She said empty rhetoric used by the government leaders on imaginary threats from Islamists militants was a ploy to invite foreign troops in the country. Police seized a huge cache of explosives, grenades and firearms after raiding suspected militant hideouts ahead of parliamentary elections in December. "A hue a cry on the existence of Islamists in the country is a conspiracy to invite foreign troops to fight the so-called militants," Khaleda told a rally organised by the labour wing of her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Addressing a May Day rally on Friday on the same ground Hasina blamed the previous government of Khaleda for inaction against Islamist groups. (Reporting by Nizam Ahmed; editing by Richard Balmforth)
A supporter of Bangladesh Awami League shouts slogan during a May day procession at Paltan in Dhaka May 1, 2009. REUTERS/Andrew Biraj (BANGLADESH POLITICS CONFLICT) ...
