Dhaka, Aug 6 - A banned Bangladeshi Islamist outfit hired 'a dozen operatives from India' to eliminate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her rival Khaleda Zia in a failed bid to foil the parliament elections held last year, a newspaper said Thursday.

Details of a nexus between the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and its operatives in West Bengal, India, were provided during interrogation of militant Zahidul Islam Sumon alias 'Boma' Mizan, an investigator of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) told The Daily Star newspaper.

The official spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity. RAB officials arrested the militant May 14.

Bangladesh authorities had tightened security last November in the wake of a report by an Indian TV channel during the run-up to the elections that there could be an attempt on the life of Hasina.

There was no confirmation, but a bomb blast took place two hours after Zia addressed an election rally in eastern Bangladesh during that time.

Hasina and her allies swept the poll, defeating the Zia-led alliance of Islamist parties.

An investigator who interrogated Mizan on several occasions said the militant leader admitted that JMB 'has a network in West Bengal in India which is weakening gradually'.