Authorities in Bangladesh said Wednesday that they have arrested three lawyers for funding a newly founded militant group.
The lawyers were arrested in Dhaka, the capital, late Tuesday, Sohel Mahmud, media wing head of the Rapid Action Battalion anti-crime agency in the southeastern city of Chittagong, said by phone.
Mahmud said the three — Sakila Farzana, Hasanuzzaman Liton and Mahfuz Chowdhury Bopon — allegedly channeled more than 10 million takas ($129,870) to the Shaheed Hamza Brigade for the new militant group to buy weapons and fund its operation.
Mahmud told a news conference in Chittagong that the three, who practice in Bangladesh's Supreme Court in Dhaka, were arrested as a result of a statement by a suspected militant who had been arrested previously.
He said the new group is trying to promote militancy in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 160 million people. "We are interrogating them," Mahmud said.
In April, the battalion arrested four suspected members of the group and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition in a raid in Chittagong.
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.