Anti-Terror Raids by Police-Rab: Tamim's 'stand-in' among 11 killed
In a massive anti-militancy crackdown, 11 suspected militants were killed in Gazipur and Tangail yesterday.
Seven of them were killed at Noagaon Patartek in Harinal area under Gazipur City Corporation in a drive codenamed “Operation Spate 8”.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. They include Faridul Islam Akash, who allegedly had been trying to reorganise “Neo JMB” after the death of its coordinator Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury on August 27, officials say.
DMP's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit with its bomb disposal unit and SWAT team and Gazipur police conducted the raid from 10:00am to 3:30pm on the first floor of a two-storey building.
Two other suspected militants were killed as members of Rapid Action Battalion conducted a separate drive from around 8:00am to 10:30am at a house in Lebu Bagan, just half a kilometre off Patartek.
Based on the tenants' information submitted to police by the houseowner, Rab is suspecting that the two were Rashed Mian and Touhidul Islam from Narsingdi. It will verify if the information is authentic.
Rab members launched another drive in Kagmara area of Tangail town, leaving two other suspected militants dead.
Based on two national ID cards found on the spot, Rab officials said the two were Atiqur Rahman, 20, son of Latifur Rahman, and Sagor Hossain, 25, son of Junaid Hossain. Both were from Charghat, Rajshahi.
Nothing could be known about the six others except that they were youths.
Officials say this is the highest number of militants killed in a single day. Earlier on July 26, nine militants were killed in a raid at a hideout in Kalyanpur.
During the drives yesterday, law enforcers seized seven firearms, including an AK 22 rifle, and a large number of ammunition and machetes.
Law enforcers carried out the operations four days after global terror group Islamic State through its propaganda magazine Rumiyah threatened more attacks in Bangladesh.
Yesterday's crackdown followed raids in the capital's Kalyanpur, Rupnagar and Azimpur and Narayanganj which left 14 militants, including Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, killed.
PATARTEK DRIVE
After visiting the Patartek spot, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said, “Those who were here [at the militant den] were all militants in some way. They were plotting to do something.”
After the death of Tamim, Akash was leading “Neo JMB”, an offshoot of banned outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, the minister said. However, the name might be his title or pseudonym, he added.
“He was one of the seven killed here.”
Asked whether any other wanted militants were among the seven, the minister told reporters that they would be able to say this after investigation.
Sanwar Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of CTTC, told journalists at the spot that following the death of Tamim, Akash became the “Neo JMB” commander of Dhaka and its surrounding areas.
“Akash was not a key leader of the group. But after the terror attack at Holey Artisan Bakery, he rose to an important position,” Sanwar said.
Akash was capable of motivating youths quickly and he was a recruiter, the official added.
Witnesses said policemen started to gather around the den from 8:30am and launched the operation just after 10:00am.
“I heard sound of gunshots immediately after police asked me to close my shop at 10:00am,” said the owner of a shop adjacent to the house.
Ashiqur Rahman, an additional deputy commissioner who led the SWAT team, told The Daily Star that they talked to the militants, who were standing behind the door of the house, and asked them to surrender.
At one stage, the militants broke open the eyehole of the door, penetrated a pistol through it and opened fire at police, added the official.
“They threatened to blast a gas cylinder they had with them as the SWAT men were trying to enter the den.”
In the ensuing gun battle, SWAT members fired 400 to 500 bullets while the militants fired more than 100 bullets and exploded 12-14 improvised grenades, said CTTC members who took part in the operation.
“Breaking open the door, the SWAT men entered the den with protection shields and saw a cylinder near the door. They [the suspects] were trying to explode it,” Ashiqur added.
Police said the militants had burnt money and documents. Three pistols and several machetes and axes were recovered from the spot.
Ashiqur said Assistant Commissioner SM Jahangir Hossain and Assistant Sub-inspector Abdul Hannan of SWAT were injured during the operation.
After the operation was over around 3:30pm, law enforcers took five locals to the spot and showed them the bodies. One of the locals, Alfaz Uddin Palan, said they saw five bodies in one corner of a room while two others in another.
They could not identify any of the dead.
Mohammad Ali, one of the five locals, said he saw two of the three rooms at the flat but saw no furniture.
In another room, there were four pillows and a mattress, said a constable.
An official said at one stage of the conversation in an effort to convince the group to surrender, police even served them water. “They opened the door slightly and we gave them a bottle of water.”
He also said the group had asked for water may be for any sick or wounded member.
Gazipur Superintendent of Police Harun-ur-Rashid said houseowner Solaiman is an expatriate in Saudi Arabia. In his absence, Osman Gani, a lecturer at Jangalia Fazil Madrasa in Kaliganj of Gazipur, used to take care of the house. The suspects rented the flat around three months back.
Shukkur Ali, a pick-up van driver who lives on the ground floor at the building, said he had never seen the suspects. But the houseowner told him that three to four youths had rented that flat, and they were students.
More than a hundred locals gathered near the spot during the operation.
LEBU BAGAN RAID
After a tip-off, Rab members laid siege to a one-story building with two units in the morning.
They asked the family who lives in one unit to keep their doors closed.
The suspects were asked to come out and surrender but they did not.
“At one point, Rab members broke open the building's collapsible gate and tried to enter the flat where the militants were staying. The militants fired several bullets at our men,” Mahiul Islam, Gazipur district commander of Rab-1, told The Daily Star.
“The Rab personnel then had to retaliate.”
At one stage of the exchange of fire, Rab members entered the flat and found the two suspects dead.
One of the two, Rashed Mian, while renting the flat had told houseowner Ataur Rahman that he was seeking admission to Dhaka University, officials said.
They said that apart from an AK 22 rifle, a 9mm pistol, a machete and bomb-making materials were seized from the den.
Locals said the one-storey house, built recently, was rented out to tenants a month ago.
The houseowner lives somewhere else, said Fazila Khatun, a neighbour.
The nine bodies from Gazipur raids were taken to Shaheed Tajuddin Medical College morgue.
TANGAIL RAID
On information that subversive activities might be carried out in the locality during Durga Puja and Ashura, a Rab team conducted the Kagmara raid from 10:30am to 3:00pm.
Rab men along with houseowner Azharul Islam Khan went to the ground floor of a three-storey building near Mirza Maath, said Rab-12 Commander Md Shahabuddin Khan.
Sensing presence of law enforcers, the militants opened fire, triggering a gunfight.
The two suspected militants killed were aged between 20 and 25, said officials.
Later, members of Rab's bomb disposal unit, cops and members of the Police Bureau of Investigation went inside and recovered the bodies clad in lungi and undershirt.
The bodies were sent to Tangail Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.
Solider Rezaul Karim and corporal Saiful Islam of the elite force suffered injuries in the drive.
Rab recovered a pistol, a revolver, 12 bullets, 10 machetes, two knives, two laptops, two mobile phone sets and Tk 65,000 from the apartment.
Houseowner Azharul, a retired primary school teacher, said the two youths rented two rooms on the ground floor of his house on September 27, introducing themselves as college students from Bogra.
They agreed to give their identity cards within a week but they did not.
They also told him that they were staying in Tangail for coaching, he said.
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