Bangladesh police overnight arrested three suspected Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives as part of a manhunt for militants who allegedly plotted to attack the Indian High Commission and US embassy in Dhaka, officials said.
"We arrested the three suspected LeT operatives last night from (suburban) Tongi and Uttara area (of the capital city) acting on a tip off," Deputy Commissioner of Police's Detective Branch (DB) Monirul Islam said.
He named the three as Abu Sufiyan, Mohammad Monwar and Mohammad Zahid but could not confirm immediately if the three or anyone of the three were Pakistani nationals.
The official said manhunts were underway for more suspected LeT operatives as the DB police last week arrested two suspected LeT and a Harkatul Jihad (HuJI) men suggesting that they planned to attack the US and Indian High Commission.
Police earlier said the local operatives of LeT and their Bangladeshi partner HuJI men received instructions from LeT's high command in Pakistan over telephone while they visited the Baridhara diplomatic enclave to chalk up the attack plans.
"We have some evidence that they (three suspects) planned to attack the US embassy and as part of the preparatory works they visited its location at Baridhara area to chalk up the detail plan," an official earlier said.
The two LeT operatives were identified as Shahidul Islam, 26, and Al Amin alias Saiful and the 33-year-old HuJI man as Mufty Harun Izhar, a son of a rightwing Islami Oikya Jote chief Mufty Azhar, whose party is a partner of ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
The detective branch sources said one of the two LeT operatives was an Indian national and another was a Pakistani though they claimed to be Bangladeshi nationals.
With the latest arrests, Bangladesh so far detained seven suspected LeT operatives from different areas of the country.
Authorities last month ordered intensified security of the Indian envoy in Dhaka Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty and its high commission in the capital after a reported security threat through email by unidentified senders.
