DHAKA: Suspected Islamist militants hurled bombs at a prison van in a daring attempt to free Bangladesh's most-wanted militant leader from death row, police said yesterday.

Police arrested a 24-year-old man at the scene and launched a hunt for his accomplices after the gang threw bombs at the van carrying Mufti Abdul Hannan in the town of Tongi just outside Dhaka on Monday. "Their aim was to snatch Mufti Hannan," local police chief Firoz Talukder said, referring to the high-profile ringleader of the Harkatul Jihad Al Islami group. Several of the bombs went off but the van was able to return to prison with Hannan and 18 other prisoners, he added. Police recovered a range of weapons from the scene, including a grenade and molotov cocktails, along with a pistol and butcher's knife. The man captured following the brazen attack was a former student at an Islamic boarding school, police said.