Number of arrestees in Bangladesh's anti-militant drive reaches 11,307

11,307 people were arrested within four days of Bangladesh's on-going week-long anti-militant drive, a police spokesman said on Tuesday.

"3,115 more people were arrested on the fourth day of the anti-militant drive, bringing the total number of arrestees to 11,307," A. K. M. Kamrul Ahsan, a Bangladeshi police spokesman, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

He said that "At least 26 among the total arrested in the last 24 hours till 6:00 a.m. (local time) Tuesday were suspected militants."

Police earlier detained 8,192 people including 119 suspected militants in the first 72 hours of the clampdown against militants.

Among the 145 suspected militants arrested so far, most are members of banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Also on Tuesday top JMB leader Garib Ullah was, among others, captured at his hideout in a large forest in Mymensingh district, some 122 km away from capital Dhaka.

Nur-e-Alam, the district's additional superintendent of police, said Ullah was a close associate of Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, executed second-in-command of a banned militant outfit.

Against the backdrop of a new wave of militancy, Bangladesh Friday launched the special drive aimed at dismantling all terrorist outfits like JMB.

JMB, campaigning for establishment of Islamic rule in Bangladesh, carried out a series of bombings in 63 out of the country's 64 districts, including capital Dhaka on Aug. 17, 2005, leaving two people dead and 150 others injured.

Hundreds of JMB leaders and activists were rounded up while six top leaders of the group, including Shaikh Abdur Rahman, were hanged in 2007.

Bangladesh has been witnessing a surge in violent attacks in recent years.

A number of secularist writers, bloggers and publishers have been killed or seriously injured in attacks carried out by extremists since 2013. Endit