Militant killed in Azimpur den raid

A militant was killed and his three accomplices were injured during a police raid at a house in the capital's Azimpur yesterday, police said. 

All the three injured are women, police said, adding five cops were also wounded after being attacked by the militants.

Police detained the three women who were being treated, one in a critical condition, at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The injured cops were also taken there for treatment.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) of the counterterrorism unit of DMP Sanwar Hossain said they primarily identified the dead as Abdul Karim alias Jamshed, who rented a flat for the Holey Artisan attackers.

“We have Karim's photo. The man who was killed today [yesterday] has similarities with Karim's appearance,” Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque told reporters. 

He added that one of the women was likely to be the wife of Major (retd) Jahidul Islam, who was killed in a police raid on September 2 in the capital's Rupnagar and who is said to have trained the Gulshan and Sholakia attackers.

Police had been looking for Jahidul's wife -- Jebunnahar Shila -- since then.

Three kids -- a boy aged 14 and two girls aged six and one -- were rescued from the house. The two girls were sent to the Victim Support Centre while the boy was taken in by detectives for questioning, police said.

While the IGP said one of the two girls might be the daughter of Jahidul, family members confirmed to The Daily Star that they both were Jahidul's children.

“The girls rescued from the scene are our nieces,” said Shila's brother Shahid Mazumder, adding that they were not sure whether Shila was among the three women.

The boy is likely to be the son of Karim, said ADC Abdul Mannan of DMP.

The IGP said they had information that the family of Jahidul and another militant had gone into hiding somewhere in Azimpur.

“Today [yesterday], we found their hideout through the raid,” he told reporters.

Acting on a tip-off, a group of plainclothes police members raided the house near Azimpur graveyard around 7:00pm, said Masudur Rahman, additional deputy commissioner of DMP.

Sensing police presence, the militants attacked the law enforcers with sharp weapons and firearms, police said. 

At one point, they hurled grenades at the law enforcers, leaving one militant dead and the others injured, Masudur told reporters in the evening.

Counterterrorism officials said Karim used to rent apartments in the capital for militants and that detectives had information of some of those apartments.

Briefing reporters around 10:00pm, the IGP said when police knocked at the door, the militants launched an attack by throwing grenades, bombs and chilli powders at the police members.

Police then fired back, resulting in the death of one militant and injuries of three female militants, he added. 

Police said they recovered some firearms, laptops and chilli powders from the spot.

Members of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit, Criminal Investigation Department and bomb disposal unit had been sweeping the scene around midnight last night.

A local said he heard sounds of blasts in the evening. When he came out of his home he saw a woman rushing towards BDR Gate-2 with a knife in her hand.

Police chased her, fired blank shots and caught her, said another local.

Several locals said a trader called Haji Mohammad Kawsar owns the six-storey building.

Talking about the inhabitants of the flat where the incident happened, a tenant said the family rented a flat on the first floor a couple of months ago, saying the father of the family was a trader.