Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles, police and members of different intelligence agencies started a joint combing operation and block raid to hunt down the militants around 7:00pm.

However, police did not disclose whether any militants were arrested or the number of arrests, if made, when this report was filed at 1:30am today.

Several teams of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), Armed Police Battalion, forces from different police stations and intelligence agencies were raiding Badda, Madartek, Bashabo, Khilgaon, Mohammadpur, Paltan, Shyampur, Khilkhet and Uttara.

A top Rab official said the decision of the raid came following directives from the home ministry.

The ministry issued the directives after it received a list of activists of outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

The Rab and intelligence agencies have prepared the list in the wake of the assassination of two senior assistant judges in Jhalakathi on November 14.

Intelligence reports say JMB chief Abdur Rahman and many of his cadres are hiding in the capital and in its surrounding areas.

The law enforcers last night formed a cordon around Banasree and thoroughly searched hotels, messes and several residential houses to trap the JMB chief and his men.

Earlier in the evening, Rab, police and intelligence officials launched a similar raid on East Madartek in Sabujbagh on receiving information that militants stockpiled a huge amount of explosives in a house to make bombs.

However, the law enforcers found a wax factory at a house in East Madartek three hours into the raid around 9:30pm.