Country averted fearful situation as police busted militant hideout in Dhaka, says PM Hasina

Militants killed in a Tuesday morning raid were ‘preparing’ to launch terror attacks, says Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 26 July 2016, 08:36 AM
Updated : 26 July 2016, 08:36 AM

She said at a meeting with senior officials that the country had averted a fearful situation, as police busted a hideout in Dhaka.

Nine persons have been killed and one captured alive after police mounted ‘Operation Storm 26’ early Tuesday morning to smoke out militants holed up in an apartment at a six-storey building.

Since the Jul 1 Gulshan attack, police have been conducting raids on suspected militant hideouts in the capital and elsewhere in the country.

During one such routine search operation, police were attacked with ‘grenades’ from a house in the Kalyanpur area around 12.30am on Tuesday.

Reinforcements arrived and the area was sealed off. Around 6am, a SWAT-led operation was conducted to neutralise the suspected militants.

“There has been an incident in Kalyanpur today. Some terrorists were preparing for an attack. Immediate measures were taken upon getting intelligence report,” she told the annual deputy commissioners’ conference.

Hasina said nine terrorists had been killed, one captured alive, and another managed to escape.

Police said all of the militants were dressed in black and had backpacks with them.

Inspector General AKM Shahidul Hoque said they suspected them to be Jamaa’tul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operatives.

The prime minister praised the law-enforcers, saying, “Police have conducted the operation successfully. It was clear that they were fully prepared for a terror attack.

“The country averted a fearful situation because of the raid.” 

She thanked police for their swift response. “The most important thing now is to combat terrorism. Our aim is to ensure people's security.”