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By Nizam Ahmed

DHAKA, March 30 (Reuters) - Bangladesh on Friday hanged six Islamist militants convicted of a wave of deadly countrywide bombings in 2005, as the army-backed government moved to stamp out extremist violence.

Security was beefed up across the country, which has been under emergency rule since January, following reports that supporters of the executed men would stage protests in their home districts.

The six Islamist leaders executed early on Friday had been behind a campaign to impose Islamic law on the impoverished country.

Police said among those put to death were Bangla Bhai, chief of the outlawed Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh group, and Shayek Abdur Rahman, supreme leader of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen.

The six were sentenced to death by the High Court in May last year for masterminding or involvement in a series of bomb attacks which killed at least 30 people and wounded 150 in 2005.

The victims included judges, lawyers, police and other officials.

The six were hanged at different jails across the country and their bodies returned to their respective villages.

There were no immediate signs of trouble in the capital, Dhaka or and the port city of Chittagong.

Police tightened security around the jails where the executions took place and people arribing for Friday noon prayers in major cities were searched by police and RAB.

Last week police said Islamist groups had threatened attacks if their leaders were hanged.

Mostafizur Rahman Shahin, detained in the northern district of Pabna on March 14, told security and intelligence agencies that about 5,000 members of banned Islamist groups were still active in the country, police said.

Bangladesh's interim government, headed by former central bank chief Fakhruddin Ahmed, is planning to enact a law to ban any group linked to Islamist militants or other terrorist groups.

Shahin told interrogators that Islamist militants in Bangladesh received money from sources overseas, including in the United States and Saudi Arabia, police said.

An election scheduled for Jan. 22 was postponed after the interim government's caretaker president quit following weeks of protests, strikes and transport blockades called by an alliance of parties that had boycotted the poll.

Fakhruddin has vowed to eliminate corruption from politics before announcing a new date for elections. More than 160 senior political figures have been arrested.

Amena Akhtar, wife of Anwarul Azam, a lawyer killed in Islamist bombing at the Gazipur town court said: "I am happy that the killers ar hanged."

"I would be much satisfied if the killers were hanged publicly in my presence," she told Reuters at at her Gazipur home, 50 km (31 miles) north of Dhaka. (Additional reporting by Anis Ahmed, Azad Majuder and Hasibur Rahman in Bogra)

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