Elite anti-crime organisation Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested 519 militants including chiefs of two major extremist outfits under their countrywide campaign against the extreme rightwing groups, RAB officials said, reports BSS.

"The list of arrested extremists included JMB (Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh) chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman and HuJI (Harkat-Ul-Jihad Al- Islami) chief Mutfi Abdul Hannan," a RAB spokesman told the news agency.

He added that the other prominent figures who were detained during the period included JMB's second in command Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai and the outfit's military wing chief Ataur Rahman Sunny.

Six of the JMB kingpins including Shaikh Rahman, Bangla Bhai and Sunny were executed two years ago while the security officials said, the anti-militant clampdown particularly in the past three years exposed the extremist outfits to a dilapidated state.

"The militant groups are now literally on the run because of the stringent vigil of police and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies," Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nur Mohammad told the news agency.

The IGP added that the police and other security agencies were now working with a closer coordination in line with a recent government directive for exchange of information among the law enforcement and intelligence agencies particularly to intensify the anti-militant campaign.

"Police, RAB and intelligence agencies including DGFI (Directorate General of Forces Intelligence) and NSI (National Security Intelligence) are now frequently sitting together to share and exchange views and information among them while Prime Minister's defence adviser retired Major General Tarek Siddiqui oversees the coordination," the police chief said.

The RAB spokesman Commander SM Abul Kalam Azad said that their men so far arrested 46 members of JMB's Majlish-e-Shura, the highest policymaking body of the outfit, alongside 103 Ehsar members.

A total of 17 members of 'suicide squad', the most ferocious cadres of JMB were arrested by RAB at that time while they also arrested 10 members of 'Gayebi Ehshar' (hidden cadre) during the period, the RAB director said.

The RAB also nabbed 337 cadres and 44 of their supporters from different parts of the country including the capital during the time, the Director added.

According to an official of the RAB headquarters, they have arrested a total of 44 leaders and cadres of JMB during last six months. Besides, the headquarters and its 12 battalions so far arrested 475 JMB cadres from across the country from 2005 to 2008. Of them, 193, the highest number of JMB cadres were arrested by RAB-5, while the second highest 115 cadres were arrested by RAB-9 during the time.

The RAB troops earlier this month arrested the second in command and military commander of a newly emerged militant outfit called Islam O Muslim, a JMB offshoot from a frontier village in northwestern Chapainawabganj.