RAB says another Ashkona camp attack suspect died in custody after arrest

Rapid Action Battalion has said another attack suspect died after being arrested in the capital's Ashkona where a militant was killed after his suicide vest went off during an attack on the camp of the elite police force.

The arrested person, identified as Abu Hanif Mridha, 32, died of 'cardiac arrest', a forensic doctor said on Saturday after post-mortem examination.

RAB spokesperson Mufti Mahmud Khan told bdnews24.com Hanif was detained at Ashkona around 4:15pm on Friday, hours after the attack on the barracks of the elite force at its new headquarters being constructed in the area near the airport.

"He (Hanif) fell ill immediately after the arrest," said Khan.

RAB took the suspect to Kurmitola General Hospital where he died at around 5:45pm, according to Khan.

The body was kept at the hospital overnight and sent to Dhaka Medical College mortuary Saturday afternoon after around 22 hours of his death.

A post-mortem examination was conducted later.

"Initially we've come to know that he died of cardiac arrest. But we've collected sample for viscera test," the hospital's Forensics Department head Professor Sohel Mahmud told bdnews24.com.

Referring to initial investigation, RAB officials said Hanif is from Barguna's Amrhagachhia.

Khan said RAB was yet to get details of Hanif.

A suicide bomber died when his suicide vest exploded in an attack on the RAB barracks inside the camp on Friday. Two RAB personnel were injured in the assault carried out around 1am, just before the Juma prayers. He is yet to be identified.

Seven to eight people have been accused in the case started under the Anti-Terrorism Act over the attack.

RAB has not given any information on any other arrest in the case yet.

Early in the morning on Saturday, RAB personnel shot a suspected attacker dead at a security checkpoint in capital’s Khilgaon area.

The elite force suspects he was a suicide bomber, too, because explosives were found tied to his body.