Dhaka, Nov. 6 (Reuters): Bangladesh police have arrested three Islamist militants, including a suspected activist of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, who were plotting to attack US interests in the country, a senior police officer said today.

“We have arrested the three from Chittagong port city as they were making plans to hit US targets,” the officer told reporters.

Lashkar-e-Toiba is the group blamed for last year’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

The Prothom Alo newspaper said, quoting a police source, that one of the two arrested LeT operatives was an Indian national and another was a Pakistani, although they claimed to be Bangladeshi nationals.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told parliament yesterday 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)