Dhaka:Bangladesh security forces said on Thursday they have arrested a Dutch national suspected of leading a group of Myanmar separatists that attacked Bangladeshi border forces in August.


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Rannin Soe is an alleged leader of the Arakan Army, which has been fighting for an independent homeland in Myanmar's Rakhine state.


Bangladesh launched a huge man-hunt for the 47-year-old after the attack on its border forces in the Chittagong Hills in the south-east of the country, near Myanmar.


"Soe is a Myanmar-origin Dutch national and a leader of the Arakan Army," local police chief Ohidullah Sarker told AFP.


"He had been on the run since the attack on a patrol team of Border Guard of Bangladesh."


Police arrested him on Wednesday after they found his Dutch passport, identity card and fatigues of the Arakan Army at a hideout.


"He has told us that he is a doctor who studied in Yangon," Sarker said, adding that Soe had been in Bangladesh since 2010.