Bangladesh arrests 24 suspected militants

Bangladesh's Security officials have detained 24 suspected Islamist militants at the Zia International Airport when they were about to board a Kabul-bound plane.

The army-led joint forces with the help of police detained all of them, all aged between 15 to 20 years, for their suspicious movements before taking boarding pass for a Dhaka-Delhi-Kabul flight of the private GMG Airlines, immigration sources said.

The suspected militants were interrogated by the taskforce team at an undisclosed place soon after their arrest, the New Age daily reported.

Immigration officials said the suspects, who were to board a plane bound for Afghanistan, could not give any satisfactory answers about the purpose of their visit.

"We suspect they might have links with militant groups, otherwise, why should they travel to war-torn Afghanistan," an immigration official was quoted as saying by the daily.

"But we are yet to determine if the detained persons were linked to any militant group and so it is too early to call them militants," another official said.