Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Bangladesh on alert for Japanese Red Army fugitives

Bangladesh on alert for Japanese Red Army fugitives: Police

http://www.zeenews.com/southasia/2009-01-29/502952news.html

Dhaka, Jan 29: Police in Bangladesh are on alert after Interpol
warned that seven members of the banned Japanese Red Army militant
group could be hiding in the South Asian nation, police said on Thursday.

A police official in the capital told reporters that the alert
concerned seven members of the group, confirming a report by the
state-run BSS news agency that quoted a provincial police officer.

"So far we haven't arrested anyone linked to the group," said the
Dhaka police official, who asked not to be named.

A spokesman with the Japanese embassy in Dhaka and officials in Tokyo
refused to comment.

The Red Army is now considered defunct, but some of its members are
still on the run and wanted in connection with global militant
activities in the 1970s.

The Japanese Red Army first made the world stage in May 1972 when
three members dressed in business suits sprayed gunfire at Tel Aviv's
airport after stepping off an Air France flight.

Twenty-six people were killed in the attack, most of them Puerto
Rican pilgrims. Two of the Japanese assailants also died.

In September 1977, the Japanese Red Army hijacked a Japan Airlines
flight over India and landed it in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.
They forced the Japanese government to free six imprisoned members of
the group.

According to the BSS report, one of the militants named in the alert
is Kozo Okamoto, wanted in connection with the Tel Aviv airport
attack and last known to be living in Lebanon.

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