Bombs defused, ‘suicide hit was on the cards’

- All 19 bombs, including 7 ‘grenades’, neutralised

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- There was plans of a suicide attack ‘soon’

- Afif Kaderi’s body taken away for autopsy

All the bombs lying about in the Ashkona militant den have been neutralised, police say with speculation that there were plans of a suicide attack by the dead and detained “militants”.

After daylong raid at the den yesterday and death of two militants, law enforcers completed the disposal of 19 bombs and two suicide vests this evening and made an announcement.

“We think that the woman (who exploded the suicide vest) was planning a suicide hit soon,” said Monirul Islam, chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit.

A van of police bomb disposal unit is seen in the area after police found five grenades and two live suicide vests on the ground floor flat used as a militant hideout in Ashkona of Dhaka’s Dakkhin Khan. Photo: Palash Khan

Meanwhile, the body of one of the militant – Afif Kaderi, son of militant Tanvir Kaderi who committed suicide during police action earlier – was taken for autopsy around 7:35pm.

“We think he committed suicide. A pistol is lying beside his body,” Monirul said.

The body was inside the first-floor flat of the house, that law enforcers suspect was used as an office.

Earlier, Proloy Kumar Joardar, a deputy commissioner of counter terrorism unit, told reporters at the spot that the flat was still volatile as “some form of gas was inside.”

[gallery id="1335229"][/gallery]Law enforcers were able to take control of two rooms of the three-roomed flat on the ground floor, he added.

Sanwar Hossain, additional commissioner and chief of bomb disposal unit, told The Daily Star this evening that his team defused a total of 19 bombs that included seven “grenades”.

Tipped-off on a possible militant hideout, SWAT, Rapid Action Battalion and police cracked down on the Ashkona house “Surja Villa” in Dakhhinkhan of Dhaka early yesterday.

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The crackdown carried on for the entire day and resulted in death of two militants, including a woman who blasted a suicide vest, and detention of four people including two children.

Proloy Kumar Joardar, deputy commissioner of DMP’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, on Sunday, December 25, 2016, tells journalists that members of a bomb disposal unit are working to recover five grenades and two suicide vests from the flat in Ashkona used as a militant den. Photo: Palash Khan