Authorities shut schools as panic grips Kalyanpur after nine militants killed in raid

Authorities have shut 27 schools in Kalyanpur after nine militants were killed in a raid on a house in the area.

The authorities are not sure when they will open the institutions, though police say there is no bar on them to operate.

Mirpur Model Police Station OC Bhuiyan Mahbub Hossain told bdnews24.com on Tuesday: “We have discouraged the people in the area from leaving their houses.

But the situation is almost normal now.”

“And we don’t have any instruction to shut the schools,” he added.

Police and RAB raided the house, ‘Taj Manjil’, next to Kalyanpur Girls’ School and College at Road No. 5, early on Tuesday. Nine militants were killed after SWAT personnel joined the operation.

The institution’s Principal Shahnaz Begum told bdnews24.com many of the students were panicked, hearing shots fired during the raid.

“Police have also closed the street to the school. So we have informed the guardians about the closure through SMS,” she said.

GM Jahangir Kabir Rana, Headmaster of Kalyanpur Laboratory High School at Road No. 6, said he also kept the institution closed for panic.

“We may open it tomorrow (Wednesday),” he said.

Rana, also the general secretary of Bangladesh Kindergarten Association, said there are 22 kindergarten schools, a high school, two colleges and two government primary schools in the area.

Parents also said they did not send their children to the schools out of fear.

Many of them called and requested that the institutions be kept shut, Khan International; School and College Principal Md Jasim Uddin Khan said.

“Even I feel insecure. I have two school-going children. I understand the panic the parents are in," he said.

The students of Dwinya Islamia Etimkhana Madrasa, an orphanage on the main street, are almost in detention.

The main gate was locked. Student Nayeemul Islam said they went outside only once for prayers.