"This is not the end of the story. The issue may come to the fore again in the future," Lutfozzaman Babar said after a Jhalakathi court awarded seven Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) leaders death sentence in judges killing case.

The country is still not free from the apprehension of further rise of the militants, he told reporters at his office.

Terming yesterday's verdict as a great success, he said: "We don't want to be complacent although the top JMB leaders are arrested and now getting punishment by court."

Militancy is a new phenomenon and the law enforcement agencies did not have the experience to fight it earlier, he said. "Now, we must take lessons from it and work to root it out from the country. We want to go to the end."

Dedicated teams comprising members from different law enforcement and intelligence agencies will work to find out whether there is still any militant activities and whether the militants are trying to reorganise, Babar said.

Asked about alleged involvement of some ruling coalition leaders in patronising the militants, he said the investigators have not yet found any proof in support of the allegation.

On the militants' foreign link, Babar said investigators have not found enough evidence.

"But we don't want to rule it out, we're probing it seriously."

Babar said the government has identified several financiers of the militants. "We've already stopped the activities of two organisations. As per recommendation of an expert committee, we've asked another (foreign) organisation to leave the country."