Police seize grenades, suicide vests in raid on Savar militant hideout

The police raid on a militant hideout in Savar on the outskirts of Dhaka has ended with the seizure of grenades and suicide vests.

Dhaka's Additional Superintendent of Police Ashraful Azam said the raid, which started late Friday, ended around 2:30pm on Saturday.

He said the police seized seven grenades, three suicide vests, bomb-making materials and laptops from a first floor flat of the six-storey building.

Superintendent of Police Shah Mizan Shafiur Rahman briefed the media later and said they questioned two persons over the incident.

The counterterrorism unit initially surrounded a five-storey building in the town's Genda neighbourhood around 7:30pm on Friday and raided a flat, but it emerged that the terror suspects had left it in the morning.

Two hours later, security forces raided a six-storey building in the same neighbourhood.

That raid led to a discovery of some explosives inside a flat in the second building, said Counterterrorism Deputy Commissioner Mahibul Islam.

On Saturday morning, the bomb disposal unit was called in to search the flat for explosives.

A loud explosion was heard from the scene at midday followed by at least nine more in the next two hours.

With the bomb squad still raiding the flat, security forces descended on a tin-shed house nearby.

One of the tenants of the tin-shed house, Mili Akter told bdnews24.com that a man known as Kamal rented six rooms of the house few days ago.

Kamal and five others, who used to live in the rooms, were not seen in the last few days, she said.

Police questioned a neighbour, Kabir Hossain, who later spoke to the media.

“Kamal rented rooms of the tin-shed house to manufacture cosmetics. Kamal had told me that he manufactures cream and hair gel, but I don't know what he actually did."

Police also found equipment used in making cosmetics on the site.

Savar Police Inspector Golam Nabi said they questioned Kabir as locals reported that they saw him speaking with Kamal.

Locals said the six-storey building was owned by an expatriate and his brother Sakib, who was also questioned by the police.

Sakib said a man and a woman, who identified themselves as a married couple, rented a flat on the first floor. The woman was pregnant.

Police said they fled just before the raid unfolded on Friday night.

"We found the food in the kitchen warm, indicating that they escaped just before we moved in,” Detective Branch Inspector ASM Sayed told the media.