RAB says it has gunned down two ‘militants’ in a raid at Bhogrha in Gazipur.
The elite police unit busted what it says was a ‘militant hideout’ tucked away into an abandoned house at Jogitola near Gazipur-Chittagong bypass on Sunday midnight.
RAB Media Wing Director Mufti Mahmud Khan told bdnews24.com at around 12:15am on Monday the ‘militants’ charged bombs on the law enforcers during the operation.
Their personnel retaliated by firing from their guns, he said.
TV footages showed RAB personnel searching the house that did not have any frame or cover on its windows.
After the swoop at 2am, Khan told reporters at the scene that two had been killed.
He could not name them immediately, but there was enough indication from what he said to suggest that they believed the duo were operatives of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
“JMB used bombs like these earlier,” he said, referring to the three improvised bombs found in the house.
He said a pistol and five rounds of bullet were retrieved from the house.
‘Huge’ amounts of bomb-making materials and JMB documents were also found in a bag on the compound, he said.
An official with an intelligence agency, requesting anonymity, told bdnews24.com two ‘militants’ –‘Minhazul’ and ‘Mahbub’ – had been freed from Kashimpur Central Jail earlier in the day.
RAB picked them up from the jail gate, he said.
Khan in the brief media briefing said, “We had information that members of a banned militant outfit gather here and plan attacks.”
Asked if there were only two in the house, he said, “Our personnel surrounded the house. There was no scope for anyone to escape.”
The RAB official also said a member of his force was injured when the ‘militants’ charged bombs.
“One of us was hit by the shrapnels. He had been sent for treatment earlier,” he said.
Last Thursday, security agencies in a raid on a house at Mirpur in Dhaka found grenades, explosives and a suicide vest.
Police said three ‘top members’ of JMB had been arrested there.
Earlier on Sunday, police in Chittagong raided a ‘JMB hideout’.
An MK-11 sniper rifle, ammunition, explosive gel, detonators, pieces of army uniform, and bomb-making materials were found in the house.
The raid was conducted on information teased out from one of three suspected JMB men arrested on Saturday
Source: bdnews24
