Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested seven suspected militants from Lalmonirhat.

Five of them belonged to banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and the other two are Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) activists, said RAB-13 chief Mozammel Haque on Wednesday.

They have been identified as ABT regional coordinator Hasan Ali alias Lal, Central Shura member Asmat Ali alias Laltu, Military wing member Shafiul Islam Saddam, Jahangir Alam, and Sirazul Islam while the JMB outfit activists’ were identified as Tomizul Islam and Sunnah Islam alias Sunnah, added Haque.

On a tip-off, members of the elite force conducted a raid at Votmari area of Lalmonirhat’s Kaliganj upazila and arrested the ABT members, while the JMB members were held in separate raids at the district’s Patgram upazila, he said.

Haque said that the latest arrest has taken the total number of militants held from Kaliganj and Patgram in the past two months to 20.

Fourteen of them have been identified as JMB activists while six others were ABT members, he said.

Firearms and ammunitions were also seized during the raids.