Staff Reporter :
Police on Sunday again conducted the drive in city’s Ashkona militant hideout and recovered five grenades and two suicide vests from the spot.
They also recovered the body of Afif Kaderi alias Ador, 14, a teenaged militant suicide bomber, who blew himself up during the Saturday’s codenamed ‘Operation Ripple 24’raid.
He was the son of ‘Neo JMB’ leader Tanvir Kaderi, who was killed in police raid. Ador’s body has been sent to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) morgue for autopsy.
A special squad of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) entered the militant hideout at Surya Vila at about 11am yesterday again and found five grenades and two unpinned live suicide vests inside a room of the flat.
Besides CTTC, crime scene team of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Bomb Disposal Unit of DMP, Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) also took part in the operation, police said.
Sabina, a four-year baby girl who also received serious wounds during Saturday’s raid, has been kept at the post-operative ward of DMCH after surgery, said Casualty Division’s Resident Doctor Jasmine Nahar.
“Splinters from the explosion had perforated her esophagus (food pipe) in 10-12 places,” Nahar said. “There are also fractures on her arms. She is not yet out of danger. We have kept her under observation,” the doctor said.
Earlier on Saturday, acting on a tip-off, the CTTC unit of the Dakshinkhan Thana Police conducted drive at house No-50 (Surya Vila) at Ashkona.
Proloy Kumar Joardar, Deputy Commissioner of CTTC unit, said they defused ten bombs found in the two vests from the flat.
“After completing necessary process, the crime scene units of CID and CTTC will start inspecting and collecting evidence from the spot,” the police official said.
Two women — wife of Major (retd) Jahid, allegedly the trainer of Gulshan and Sholakia attackers, and wife of “Neo JMB” leader Maynul Musa, surrendered with two babies during Saturday raid.
The ground floor used as militant hideout was in volatile condition as gas was coming out of one of the rooms where the body of the militant Afif Kaderi Ador was lying. Apart from Afif Kaderi, a female militant also blew herself up during Saturday’s raid.
“They are being grilled at Detective Branch of police office,” Proloy Kumar said.
Senior ASP Abdus Salam of CID said, “We will start our investigation as soon as the CTTC declares the zone secure.”
Meanwhile, doctors of Forensic Medicine Department of DMCH yesterday conducted autopsy on the body of the female ‘militant’.
After the autopsy, Dr Sohel Mahmud, assistant professor of the department told reporters that the woman was killed in bomb explosion.
The doctors collected blood, hair and flesh from the body during the autopsy for DNA test, he added.
Meanwhile, DMP Commissioner Md Asaduzzaman Mia on Sunday said militant Musa, who managed to flee the militant’s den at Ashkona, will be arrested soon.
“Militant leader Musa will be arrested very soon,” he told reporters after visiting security measures at Kakrail cathedral church in the city on the occasion of Christmas day.
Militant leader Musa who rented the flat managed to flee the scene before members of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) Unit of DMP stormed into it on early Saturday. Chief of DMP’s CTTC unit Monirul Islam on Sunday said the evidences found at Neo JMB den in Ashkona, manifest militants plan to carry out a big attack.
“We have defused 19 grenades and two suicide vests recovered from the house alongside three firearms. We have found evidence that the militants also torched money worth of Taka 1.2 million,” he told newsmen at Ashkona.
Law enforcing agencies completed defusing the explosives found in the Ashkona flat yesterday afternoon.
