9 MILITANTS KILLED in Dhaka hideout
While conducting a block raid in the capital's Kalyanpur, police stumbled across a militant hideout in a building and killed nine suspected militants after a fierce gun battle in the early hours yesterday.
The identities of the dead could not be confirmed immediately, but police said their appearance, dresses and some other evidence seized suggest the Kalyanpur group and the Holey Artisan Bakery gunmen had some similarities.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Before striking the militant den, police captured a suspected militant named Rakibul Hasan Reagan, with bullet injury in the skull and fractured leg, from the neighbourhood around 1:30am.
Rakibul and an unidentified suspect jumped on the tin roof of an adjacent house, prompting police to open fire soon after the block raid started around 12:30am.
He was bullet-hit and captured but the other managed to flee, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia in a post-operation briefing.
A witness said he saw a youth wearing jeans and t-shirt walked out through a narrow alley with a bag.
Rakibul, now under treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, told police that he was a student of Bogra's Government Shah Sultan College and he joined Islamic State (IS) around a year ago. He claimed he was the “cook at the militant den”.
From him, police gleaned information about the den, which was a fourth-floor flat in a six-storey building locally known as “Jahaz Building” on Road 5. He also told cops about the number of militants and their arms and ammunition. It helped law enforcers to design a joint operation codenamed “Storm 26”.
“Storm 26” was launched at 5:51am.
The dead were in black outfits and red-white chequered scarves similar to the ones five Gulshan attackers were wearing in the IS photos posted by SITE Intelligence Group.
The black outfit and the scarf are often seen in pictures of IS militants in the media.
Islamic State's another recognisable symbol is its black and white flag adorned with Arabic lettering. Black cloths resembling the IS flag were also found at the flat.
Following the operation, an official of the DB's bomb disposal unit said the bodies were lying on the floor in pools of blood with some of them holding knives. Others had grenades in their pockets.
DMP boss Asaduzzaman Mia at the briefing said that after the gunfight, the joint force recovered 13 locally made grenades, around five kg gel, 19 detonators, four 7.62mm pistols, seven magazines of 7.62mm pistols, 22 bullets, three commando knives and 12 guerrilla knives and two black flags with Arabic letters.
The operation came days after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina warned of more deadly attacks like the ones at Gulshan bakery on July 1 and Sholakia on July 7.
Some of the Gulshan and Sholakia attackers studied at reputed institutions and remained missing.
Rakibul, who was detained, too went missing a year ago.
When an assistant sub-inspector of the DMCH police camp asked him to elaborate IS, he replied, “Islamic State.”
During the questioning, he identified eight of the militants staying at the den as Robin, Ovi, Sabbir, Atik, Sohan, Imran, Taposh and Iqbal.
However, the DMP commissioner in the briefing said, “The identities of the dead would be confirmed through further investigation.”
The DMP uploaded the photos of the dead in its Facebook page, saying if anyone can identify them, he/she is being requested to leave a message in the inbox.
The DMP boss told the media that the militants, aged between 20 and 25, wore black panjabis and jeans. All except one were wearing sneakers.
Their appearance, dresses, attitude and their conversation with police when they were asked to surrender suggested that they were smart, well educated and from elite class.
It is possible that these militants and the Holey Artisan gunmen belonged to the same group, added the DMP chief.
A DB official said possibly the black dresses were their combat uniform.
Deputy Commissioner of DMP (Mirpur division) Masud Ahmed said they were conducting the block raid in Kalyanpur area as part of the ongoing anti-militancy drives in the capital and other parts of the country.
“As our team cordoned off the area and began searching different messes, they came under grenade and gun attacks from the building,” he told The Daily Star. The force retaliated with fire.
“I mobilised more forces to the area and informed my high-ups and SWAT, counterterrorism unit and DB,” he said.
Later, when they entered the fourth-floor flat at the six-storey “Jahaz Building”, they found the militants had burnt some documents.
Photos inside the building showed bundles of burnt currency notes and destroyed laptops and phones at the flat.
The flat has three rooms, a kitchen and a toilet.
Masud believes that some of the militants resided at two nearby apartments, which were found empty during the block raid. “They may have gathered at the apartment at Jahaz Building to plot an attack,” he added.
Following initial attacks and counter attacks, several hundred members of DMP, SWAT, DB, counterterrorism unit and Rapid Action Battalion joined the law enforcers already deployed around “Jahaz Building”.
They restricted the area for the media and public and evacuated residents from some other apartments and parts of some nearby buildings.
Whenever people were peeking out the windows or coming out on verandas, police shouted, “Go inside.”
OPERATION STORM 26
At 5:51am, around 50 members of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) in combat gears launched the hour-long operation “Storm 26” assisted by members of other agencies and units.
One of the SWAT members said they faced strong resistance as one grenade after another was hurled at them. “We had a plan to catch the militants alive but could not as they kept throwing grenades at us.”
He added that shells of bullets, grenades and firearms were scattered all over the floor.
As the operation started, staccato of fires rocked the area for 15 minutes. After that, gunshots were heard at several minutes' intervals.
A neighbour, on condition of anonymity, said he saw through his window that several young men in black clothes were firing pistols from the flat while law enforcers were shooting incessantly from the ground as well as through the windows of neighbouring buildings.
Police sources said about 400-500 shots were fired by law enforcers.
Around 7:15am, DMP Additional Commissioner Sheikh Mohammad Maruf Hassan along with some other officials told journalists, who gathered around 250 to 300 yards off the crime scene, that they completed the operation at 6:51am.
“We have completed the operation and killed nine militants who were inside the flat,” Maruf said.
Minutes later, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque and DMP commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia visited the spot.
Asked whether they could ascertain the identities of the nine, the IGP said an injured militant who was being treated at the DMCH claimed to be an IS member, “but we believe they are JMB operatives”.
An official said the flat's walls and the main door were riddled with bullet holes.
The bomb disposal unit was the first to enter the flat following “Storm 26”. They neutralised the grenades found there.
The CID then went in and collected evidence till about 4:15pm after which the bodies were sent for autopsies.
Police took the bodies to Dhaka Medical College morgue around 5:00pm.
Morgue sources said there were multiple marks of bullets on each of the bodies and autopsies would be conducted today.
According to DMP Deputy Commissioner (Media) Masudur Rahman, the raid was carefully planned to avoid casualty of innocents.
BRIEFING
DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia during the briefing at the DMP media centre in the afternoon said the group members rented the flat on June 20.
They had been planning to carry out an attack like the one at Holey Artisan, he added.
He also said that before starting the operation, law enforcers through hand mike asked the militants to surrender.
“But they shouted 'Allahu Akbar' and hurled grenades and opened fire targeting the law enforcers,” he said. Police also opened fire in retaliation.
A policeman suffered minor injury.
Claiming that it was one of the most successful missions conducted by the DMP, the commissioner said, adding their mission to eliminate militants will continue.
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