The Bangladesh police on Thursday shot and killed two suspected commanders from a ban-ned Islamist militant group blamed for a deadly bomb blast on a Shia shrine in Dhaka, officers said.
The Bangladesh police on Thursday shot and killed two suspected commanders from a ban-ned Islamist militant group blamed for a deadly bomb blast on a Shia shrine in Dhaka, officers said.
Detectives raided a Jam-ayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) hideout in the capital around midnight following a tip-off, triggering a shoot out with the police. “Two militants were wounded as police fired back after the militants hurled a grenade and started shooting indiscriminately. They were declared dead after they were brought to Dhaka Medical College Hospital,” a police statement said.
One of the commanders named as Kamal, alias Hiron, was a suspect in the attack on Dhaka’s packed main Shia shrine in October that left two dead and dozens injured. Deputy commissioner Sanwar Hossain said commanders Abdullah al Noman and Kamal were both prime suspects in the murder of a police constable at a check-post in November.
Three JMB militants were also arrested during the overnight raid, the police said.
The police have stepped up a crackdown on local Islamist militants after the Muslim-majority country was left reeling from an upsurge in deadly violence in 2015 blamed on religious extremists.
The government rejects ISIS’ claims of responsibility for many of the attacks, including the shooting murders of two foreigners.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s secular government insists the jihadists have no presence in the country. It instead accuses the JMB and other local militant groups as well as the Islamist-allied political Opposition of trying to destabilise the country.
The Sunni-majority country has been plagued by unrest in the last three years, and experts warn that a long-running political crisis has radicalised opponents of the government.
