Bangladesh detains Islamists ahead of war crimes trial

Bangladesh police detained 20 members of the main opposition Islamist party on Thursday, and said they seized bombs, in a raid that comes as the government prepares to put party leaders on trial for war crimes.

The police said they had detained the members of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which is allied to the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, on suspicion of plotting to destabilise the country.

"They were holding a secret meeting to discuss plans to destabilise the country," said Imtiaz Ahmed, a deputy police commissioner, adding police had also found six bombs and a huge quantity of bomb-making materials.

Bangladesh has accused five detained leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, which is also the country's biggest Islamic political party, of crimes committed in the war of independence from Pakistan nearly 40 years ago and helped the Pakistani army in acts of genocide.

Jamaat denies any wrongdoing and in turn has accused the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of trying to curb its activities with the war crimes charges.

The government said the war crime trials would start soon as investigations were nearing completion.

Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, won independence with India's help in December 1971 following a nine-month war against Pakistan. Around 3 million people were killed and thousands of women raped.

Many Bangladeshis accuse Jamaat of actively collaborating with the Pakistani army.

Trying war criminals was an election pledge of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who returned to power in January 2009 after polls that ended two years of rule by an army-backed interim authority.