10.53 PM Thursday, 28 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:57 06:11 12:27 15:53 18:37 19:51
28 March 2024

Dhaka raid: 9 militants killed

Policemen return from a raid on a building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police in Bangladesh's capital raided a five-story building Tuesday and killed nine suspected Islamic militants the country's police chief said. (AP)

Published
By Agencies

Bangladeshi police killed nine suspected extremists in a gun-battle Tuesday after storming a hideout where they said a new mass attack was being planned.

Police said they belonged to a Bangladeshi group blamed for an attack on a Dhaka cafe earlier this month in which 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, were killed and had been planning another large-scale assault.

"Nine militants were killed after two hour-long gunfight" deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Masud Ahmed told AFP, adding another extremist was shot and arrested during the raid in the capital's Kalyanpur neighbourhood.

National police chief A.K.M Shahidul Hoque told reporters they suspected all 10 were members of the homegrown extremist group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), which was blamed for the Dhaka cafe attack.

Five gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in the upscale Gulshan neighbourhood on July 1 and killed two policemen and 20 hostages, including nine Italians and seven Japanese nationals, before commandos ended the siege.

Daesh (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attack and posted gruesome images of the carnage before the military stormed the cafe.

Bangladeshi authorities have rejected the claim, saying international jihadist networks have no presence in the world's third largest Muslim majority nation.

But a police official said the wounded survivor who was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital after Tuesday's raid claimed that all of those inside the hideout were IS followers.

"His name is Hasan. He said they are IS members," the police official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding the 25-year-old was a cook and hailed from the northern district of Bogra, home to two of the five cafe attackers.   

"We think they are all JMB members ... We have not found any link with IS. They are all local Bangladeshi militants," Hoque said.


Planning attack

Hoque added that they had rented a fouth-floor flat and were planning to launch a large-scale attack.

"From police intelligence sources we learnt that they were planning to carry out a major incident. We conducted the operation to foil any such incident," he said.

Police said they cordoned off an apartment building after suspects threw a small hand bomb at officers who were conducting a "block raid" in the area after midnight.

"This morning police launched Operation Storm 26 and was able to destroy the militants. We're now sweeping the place," Dhaka additional police commissioner Sheikh Maruf Hasan, who led the raid, told AFP.

"Their dress and their slogans before and after the attack all proved that they are members of militant force."