Dhaka- Bangladesh on Tuesday alerted its intelligence agencies and local governments against possible militant attacks on garment industries contributing major export earnings to its economy, a junior minister said.

"We have alerted the intelligence agencies so that the militants cannot unleash attacks on the ready-made garment industries," Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj, the state minister for home affairs, said at a press briefing after a meeting with the leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

The state minister warned that some militants are bent on sabotage but assured the association that the government would protect the industry, which accounts for 76 per cent of the country's exports and is concentrated in the central districts of Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj and the southern port city of Chittagong

The apparel industry leaders submitted a memorandum to the minister asking for measures to save the sector from any adversity, especially during of the global recession and the country's sliding law and order situation.

Meanwhile, police captured a suspected leader of the outlawed militant group Jamaat ul Mujahideen Bangladesh from the southern district of Bhola and seized arms and ammunition from a madrasa, a religious school. (dpa)