DHAKA, Nov. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- The outlawed Islamic militant group the Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) has planned to attack passenger trains as its next target to create chaos and anarchy in Bangladesh.

    To conduct such operation, Sumon, private secretary and close aide of JMB chief Shaikh Abudur Rahman, is now in the northern region of the country, The Bangladesh Observer reported Saturday.

    Intelligence agencies gathered information that to create instability, the JMB has decided to carry out bomb attacks by its suicide squads on passenger trains.

    In view of threat from the militants, the western zone of Bangladesh Railway has taken up tight security measures while police declared a "red Alert" in the entire northern region of the country.

    Police are searching all passengers traveling by inter-city, mail and local trains and also people entering railway stations.

    Shaikh Abdur Rahman has hid out after JMB launched a country-wide bomb attacks in the country on Aug. 17 which left three people killed and over 150 others injured. More than 400 suspects, most of them are JMB members, were arrested so far by the police for involving the Aug. 17 blasts.

    The chief of the Islamist organization has ducked a couple of attempts by the security forces to arrest him in the past few days. The intelligence wing of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) closed in on him last Saturday in the capital but Abdur Rahman slipped through their dragnet. The battalion suspects he may have been forewarned.

    A home ministry high official said his arrest, however, "is now a matter of time."

    Several RAB teams are carrying out raids in the capital city and on its outskirts to arrest Abdur Rahman, his brother Ataur Rahman and his operations commander Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai.

    The teams are maintaining secrecy about the operations so that Abdur Raman and his men, who are believed to have orchestrated the countrywide series of blasts on August 17, cannot be forewarned and cannot escape once again.

    The drive to arrest them has intensified since two judges were bombed to death in the country on Nov. 14, only one day after the conclusion of the 13th SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Summit.

    The government fears more such bomb attacks since threats to attack judges and courts continued in the name of the Islamist outfit.

    In their continued hunt, the law enforcers on Friday arrested eight more Mujahideen activists including a college teacher and a computer science engineer.

    JMB has a little more than 1,500 members working to establish Islamic laws, said Abdul Awal, one of the top five leaders of the outfit, to the members of the task force for interrogation. Awal was arrested by police on Nov. 18.

    Inspector General of Police Abdur Quyyum, however, told the press recently that about 10,000 militants had been on the prowl. Enditem