Four ‘Neo-JMB’ militants held as RAB busts Sirajganj hideout

The Rapid Action Battalion has detained four members of an Islamist outfit from a militant hideout in Sirajganj's Shahjadpur Upazila.

They surrendered after a seven-hour standoff with elite police unit, who had cordoned off a tin-roofed house in Ukilpara ahead of a raid on Friday.

“Four militants have surrendered and now there’s no one inside the house. Officers are conducting a raid inside,” Lt Col Ashik Billah, director of the RAB's legal and media wing, told bdnews24.com.

One of the detainees has been identified as 'Kiran', the second-in-command of the banned militant outfit Neo-JMB's operations in the Pabna-Sirajganj region, according to the elite police unit.

RAB recovered firearms, sharp weapons, bomb-making materials and books on radical ideologies inside the house, said Muhammed Mohiuddin Miraj, acting company commander of RAB-12 Sirajganj Camp.

The RAB was tipped off about the hideout by a group of miscreants who were arrested during an operation in Rajshahi on Nov 14. A RAB team was subsequently sent out to investigate the house in Ukilpara.

The elite police unit prepared to swoop on the tin-roofed house after its occupants opened fire on the law enforcers as they approached the building late on Thursday. Higher officials of RAB also visited the scene.

Residents of nearby houses were evacuated to safety as the RAB called on the suspected militants to surrender using a microphone.

Later, four people surrendered themselves to law enforcement. Details of the raid will be revealed later, according to RAB officials.