Two terror suspects die in raid on alleged militant hideouts in Narsingdi

Two militants have been found dead during a SWAT raid on suspected JMB militant hideouts in Narsingdi.

One of the dead found in a five-storey house at Bhagirathpur on Tuesday afternoon was a female and the other one was a male, both in their 30s, according to Monirul Islam, chief of the police’s Counterterrorism and Transnational Crimes unit.

Police and other security agencies cordoned off the house and another one of seven storeys at nearby Madhabdi area on Monday night. The militants had used the houses as their hideouts, police said.

The suspected members of the revived faction of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh or Neo-JMB were planning attacks in the houses within 200 metres of the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway, police said.

They believed militants are holed up in an apartment of the seven-storey building owned by Afzal Haji. The other house is owned by one Billal Hossain.

Several gunshots were fired from the house at Bhagirathpur soon after the police raided it at noon.

Police have evacuated residents close to the houses and restricted entry within 500 yards of the houses. They advised the people in the areas to stay home.

Firemen and a team of doctors were kept on standby in both places.

Photo: Obaidur Masum

Monirul announced the end of the raid in Bhagirathpur around 4pm.

There were many wounds on the bodies and police were not sure whether these were from bomb blast or gunfire, the police officer said.

A gun was found in the house and the suspects detonated four bombs. 

“The bombs indicate that they were planing a huge attack,” Monirul said.

The house at Madhabdi is around two kilometres away from that at Bhagirathpur.

Photo: Obaidur Masum

Police said they had information that there were more than one militant in the Madhabdi house.

Monirul said they would ask the suspects to surrender first and storm it if the suspects do not heed to the police call.

He also said the suspects in the two houses had links between them.

Inspector General of Police Mohammad Javed Patwary, while visiting the site earlier, said the operation was codenamed ‘Gordian Knot’, considering the level of difficulty in the raid.

“The militants are in a better position in the buildings than we are. That’s why the raid has become difficult. They opened fire on us and we retaliated,” he said.    

Photo: Obaidur Masum

The counterterrorism unit and RAB provided a back-up to the police, Narsingdi Superintendent of Police Saifullah Al Mamun told bdnews24.com on Tuesday morning.

The security agencies surrounded the two houses around 9pm on Monday and a SWAT team joined them on early Tuesday, he said.

Bodies of two militants, explosives, arms and ammunition were found after a similar operation on a house near the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway at Mirsarai in Chattogram on Oct 5.