Very often, western observers play down the existence and influence of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami inside Bangladesh’s territory. Investigations into several terror strikes in Bangladesh that occurred between May 2004 and December 2005 have revealed, instead unearthed, a lethal nexus between these two Pakistan-based terror groups and a couple of mainstream political parties (Pro-Islamic Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) in Bangladesh.
After months of investigations, authorities in Bangladesh slapped a 40-year jail sentence to three militants of the outlawed Islamic outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) blamed for a series of bombings in the country in 2005. Two convicts— Mohammad Awal and Ataur Sunny— have confessed their involvement in the 17 August countrywide bombings that killed three people and left over 150 injured. They also confessed that two British nationals financed the August serial bombings.