Bangladesh police say Islamists target U.S. interests

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh police have arrested three Islamist militants, including a suspected activist of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, who were plotting to attack U.S. interests in the country, a senior police officer said on Friday.

"We have arrested the three from Chittagong port city as they were making plans to hit U.S. targets," the officer, who asked not to be identified, told reporters. Lashkar-e-Taiba is the group blamed for last year's assault on Mumbai.

The U.S. embassy declined to comment.

Earlier, home ministry officials said Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim country of 150 million people, had stepped up security as intelligence reports suggested militants might target key politicians, officials and may be diplomats.

Last week unknown attackers bombed the car of a ruling party legislator, Fazle Noor Tapas. He escaped unhurt, but more than a dozen people were wounded.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told parliament on Thursday that Islamists who want to turn Bangladesh into a sharia-based Islamic state were out to thwart democracy and oust her government, which took charge in January.

"What they are up to? They are trying to scuttle democracy and push the country into chaos and violence," she said.

Police said on Friday they had detained dozens of hard-core militants across the country in the past week.

Hasan Mahmud Khandaker, chief of the elite Rapid Action Battalion, told reporters the militants were regrouping and planning to hit key targets but "we are fully ready to face the situation and frustrate their evil designs."

(Reporting by Anis Ahmed; Editing by Alex Richardson)