Bangladesh says group named in India attack marginalized

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh said on Friday that militant group Harakat-ul-Jihad al Islami (HuJI), which Indian police suspect could be involved in bombings this week in a tourist city, had been marginalized following a crackdown.

Top government officials in Dhaka also urged the Indian media not to jump to conclusions and point the finger at "foreign forces" for the multiple explosions in the western city of Jaipur that killed 61 people on Tuesday.

"Bangladesh banned the HuJI group years ago after it was banned in the United States and other countries as a top militant organization," said Hasan Mahmood Khandaker, director general of the Rapid Action Battalion.

"Dozens of HuJI activists in Bangladesh including their chief Mufti Abdul Hannan have been detained over the years. While we don't rule out the existence of HuJI in Bangladesh we can say their activity has been drastically controlled by the security agencies here," he told Reuters over telephone.

Indian police said the attack in Jaipur bore some hallmarks of HuJI, and released a sketch of a man in his mid-20s seen near the scene of one bombing speaking Bengali, the main language of Bangladesh

An email to local media, from a group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen, declared open war on India and threatened more attacks on tourists.

India has suffered a wave of bombings in recent years and has blamed militant groups in Pakistan for most of the violence. But there have also been calls on Dhaka to curb the activities of Islamist groups operating there.

But Dhaka has bristled at suggestions that it harbored militants, arguing it itself had suffered violence.

Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, foreign affairs adviser (minister) to Bangladesh's army-backed interim government, said "no one should point finger at Bangladesh automatically for any suspected HuJI attack in other countries."

"These are terrorists who have done this sordid and heinous deeds, and terrorists have no boundaries," he said.

"Also, the media should not jump to conclusions before thorough investigation are concluded."

The Bangladeshi group has been blamed for series of attacks in the past including the 2004 bombing of a political rally addressed by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and an attack on Bangladeshi born British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury the same year.

HuJI (Movement of Islamic Holy War) was set up to turn Bangladesh, a moderate Muslim country, into a theocratic state, police say.

The group was labeled a terrorist organization by the United States in the late 1990s. In October 2005, it was officially banned by the government of Bangladesh and the head of the group, Mufti Hannan, was arrested.

The U.S. State Department said the group's leader had signed a 1998 fatwa sponsored by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden that "declared American civilians to be legitimate targets for attack".

Bangladesh said its security forces had curbed the activities of the organization after the arrest of more than 60 members.

(Reporting by Ruma Paul and Masud Karim; Writing by Anis Ahmed; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)