Dressed in black, the nine dead in Kalyanpur raid were JMB operatives, says IGP

Nine men killed in a Tuesday morning raid on a hideout are believed to be members of the banned militant outfit, Jamaa’tul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Bangladesh Police chief AKM Shahidul Hoque says.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 26 July 2016, 07:20 AM
Updated : 26 July 2016, 08:35 AM

“We suspect the Gulshan cafe attackers and these men were part of the same JMB group,” the inspector general of police (IGP) told reporters at the scene of the incident.

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 in Dhaka, police were attacked with ‘grenades’ from a house in the Kalyanpur area around 12.30am on Tuesday, said IGP Hoque.

The raiding team immediately requested backup forces, he added. “Reinforcements arrived and sealed off the area. Later, the SWAT squad and a Bomb Disposal Unit did a recce.”

The Bangladesh Police chief said the final push to enter the building — ‘Operation Storm 26’ — started at 5:51am.

“The militants came out of the apartment firing their way out in an attempt to escape. They wore black dresses, had turbans on their heads, and backpacks with them,” said Hoque.

Counter-terrorism unit’s senior officer Sanowar Hossain said nine bodies were found after the SWAT-led early morning operation that lasted for a little over an hour.

“We have found a set of unpacked black dresses and a black flag. A grenade and a pistol have been seized from the apartment,” said Additional Deputy Commissioner Hossain.

The five Gulshan cafe killers, too, had worn black clothes while posing for photographs in front of an Islamic State flag.

The photos were reportedly released by the Islamic State after the Jul 1 attack, which left 22 people dead.

A few days later, police arrested a man from Dhaka’s Mirpur for renting his house to the cafe attackers. Black dresses were found in that house also.

The Islamic State has reportedly claimed the Gulshan attack, but Bangladesh officials have identified the gunmen as JMB activists, an assertion the IGP reiterated after Tuesday’s incident. 

“We suspect them to be JMB activists, but they claim themselves to be part of the IS (Islamic State).

“We have found no IS links with them,” he said.