Staff Reporter :
Two suspected women militants surrendered to the law enforcers at the cordoned off seven-storey building in Gangpar area of Madhabdi upazila in Narsingdi district on Wednesday.
They were accused in Holey Artisan Bakery attack case surrendered to the cops around 2:35pm through ending of the 42-hour raid, reports our Narsingdi Correspondent quoting law enforcers.
The yielded were identified as Khadiza Akhter Meghna, 25, and Israt Jahan alias Mou, 20, who are students of Pharmacy Department of Manarat University, Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit Chief Monirul Islam told the reporters after their surrender.
He told the media in the morning that the suspected militants would be asked to surrender before the final raid begin. The SWAT raid would be in evitable only commence if they did not surrender.
Sounds of gunshots were also heard in the area around 11:54am, reports our correspondent from the spot.
Earlier around 9:00am, law enforcers sent a drone to determine the position of the “militants”, but the attempt was not successful as it failed to gather any images, the correspondent quoted Monirul as saying.
Police had assured the suspected militants at Gangpar area of legal support if they surrendered, Monirul said also earlier in the morning.
On August 16, 2016, Rapid Action Battalion arrested Meghna, Mou and two other suspected members of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) from the capital and Gazipur respectivly. Later a case was filed against them under the Anti-terrorism Act, the CTTC chief said.
The CTTC boss said the militants on October 15 took two flats on rent, one at Madhabdi and another at Shekher Char.
“Of the two accused, Meghla’s husband too is an active member of Neo-JMB. We have also recovered a couple of bombs from the militant hideout and are trying to defuse those,” Monirul said.
The two women, clad in black burkas, were escorted by law enforcers in a special ambulance around 2:45pm. They were wearing helmets at that time and taken away from the scene swiftly.
A case was filed under the anti-terrorism act with Madhabdi Police Station against the duo.
A police official said that law enforcers had brought down a wall on the fifth floor of the building and entered the flat. The two women then agreed to surrender.
“They prepared four explosives there,” he said. “This indicates they were planning a large attack.”
The hideout on the sixth-floor apartment of the building had been cordoned off since Monday night. The militant suspects reportedly rented the apartment on October 3.
On Tuesday, two militant suspects, including a woman, were killed in a police operation at a hideout in Narsingdi’s Shaikerchar area, about two weeks after they came to the district with several other suspects to attend the wedding of one of their female accomplices.
Police personnel from the CTTC and the Lawful Interception Cell (LIC) surrounded the two buildings at 9:00pm on Monday night.
