<p class="title">Bangladesh police arrested 15 suspected members of a banned Islamist extremist group from the country's second-largest city, officials said Saturday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Chittagong police conducted multiple arrests across the port city, including the regional commander and activists of the outlawed Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) group, police spokesman Shah Abdur Rouf said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"The militants were being reorganised in the city," he told AFP, adding police recovered laptops, mobile phones, jihadist books, and cash to be used for "subversive activities".</p>.<p class="bodytext">The group was banned in the South Asian nation in 2009 for carrying out "anti-state and anti-democratic" activities.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The London-based HT, which calls for a caliphate for all Muslims, has been operating for decades around the world.</p>.<p class="bodytext">It was banned in Bangladesh in 2009 for carrying out "anti-state and anti-democratic" activities.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Bangladesh has seen a spate of fatal violence caused by Islamist extremists in recent years, including the 2016 Islamic State (IS)-claimed cafe attack in Dhaka which killed 22 people, mostly foreigners.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sheikh Hasina's government launched a major nationwide crackdown following the cafe attack, killing over 100 alleged Islamist extremists and rounding up hundreds of suspects.</p>
<p class="title">Bangladesh police arrested 15 suspected members of a banned Islamist extremist group from the country's second-largest city, officials said Saturday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Chittagong police conducted multiple arrests across the port city, including the regional commander and activists of the outlawed Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) group, police spokesman Shah Abdur Rouf said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"The militants were being reorganised in the city," he told AFP, adding police recovered laptops, mobile phones, jihadist books, and cash to be used for "subversive activities".</p>.<p class="bodytext">The group was banned in the South Asian nation in 2009 for carrying out "anti-state and anti-democratic" activities.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The London-based HT, which calls for a caliphate for all Muslims, has been operating for decades around the world.</p>.<p class="bodytext">It was banned in Bangladesh in 2009 for carrying out "anti-state and anti-democratic" activities.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Bangladesh has seen a spate of fatal violence caused by Islamist extremists in recent years, including the 2016 Islamic State (IS)-claimed cafe attack in Dhaka which killed 22 people, mostly foreigners.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sheikh Hasina's government launched a major nationwide crackdown following the cafe attack, killing over 100 alleged Islamist extremists and rounding up hundreds of suspects.</p>