Staff Reporter :
A woman and a teenaged boy blew themselves up during a police raid in a militant den at a three-storied house ‘Suriya Villa’ in the city’s Ashkona on Saturday.
The suspected female militant died when she detonated a suicide vest, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told journalists while visiting the spot yesterday.
The deceased boy has been identified as Abir alias Adar alias Afif Kaderi, 15, son of Tanvir Kaderi, who was killed in Azimpur raid on September 10, while the woman identified as militant Sumon’s wife Shakira, the minister said.
He said that the bodies of the woman and Afif were found unconscious lying on a pool of blood on the floor.
The teenaged Afif also blasted several grenades and opened fire at police after they lobbed gas canisters, the minister said.
The minister claimed that Musa, a most wanted militant co-coordinator of neo-JMB had escaped from the building a few hours before the raid.
Police had conducted the ‘Operation Ripple 24’ around 9:00am and declare the conclusion around 3:30pm, he added.
In the meantime, two alleged female militants surrendered with their two children to the police in response to relatives for the first time, Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit Chief Monirul Islam told The New Nation on Saturday evening.
The surrendered women are Jebunnesa Shila, wife of ex- Major Zahid, who was killed in ‘gunfight’ with law enforcers in the capital’s Roopnagar area on September 2, and Trishna, wife of absconding JMB leader Sumon Musa, the police official said.
A seven-year-old girl Sabina, daughter of slain militant Iqbal also injured critically in the blast, the CTTC unit chief said.
Shafi Ahmmed, Inspector of the bomb disposal unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), was injured as the militants hurled a bomb towards the law enforcers at that time, he said.
After the blast, police broke into the apartment where the militants were staying and rescued Sabina. The girl was rushed to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), the police official said.
“We were trying to cajole them into surrendering but they were refusing to come out and threatening to attack us with the bombs,” he added, adding the JMB members were staying on the ground floor of the building with huge powerful grenades and suicide vests.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of the CTTC unit Sanowar Hossain, who is leading the raid, said, “A team of law enforcers came to the house around 12.30am and inquired about the inmates of the apartments in the building. Later, the team entered the building and encircled the area around 1.30am.
Hours later, the CTTC unit gave the rest inside the building a two-minute ultimatum to lay down their arms. At that moment, a woman, clad in burqa, came out with her 7-year-old girl Sabina and blew herself up while chanting ‘We will go to heaven.”
Sanowar said they had laid siege on the house early Saturday acting on a tip off that fugitive militant Musa was inside the building. However, they have found others.
“Those inside have been repeatedly asked to surrender. But they were threatening to detonate grenades tied to their bodies,” he said.
The CTTC unit officer said, the two other females, who surrendered with Jahid’s wife and child, might have the spouse and daughter of one of Neo JMB’s current leader ‘Musa.’
“Sabina identified herself as the daughter of Iqbal and Sakira. However, details about Iqbal and Sakira could not be known immediately,” he added.
The bomb disposal team and CID crime scene unit entered the flat and took the scene of crimes and ended the operation around 3:30pm, he said.
Junaki Rasel, daughter of the house owner told The New Nation, “A man named Imtiaz, introducing himself as an online businessman, rented the house in September and said he would live here with his wife and a kid, and his sister may visit sometimes.”
“Their movement was not suspicious. And they also filled up the tenant information form provided by the DMP and we gave it police,” she said, adding that her father Jamal Uddin, is an expatriate currently living in Kuwait.
The militants, who rented a flat of Surija Villa in Dhaka’s Dakkhin Khan area five months back, always kept the doors and windows of their flat shut, Md Ali Rubel, a resident of the first floor of the three-story building.
Being asked about the raid, Rubel said, “Before the police started the raid around 12:30am, they asked me about the suspected militants. But I couldn’t say as I never saw them. I requested them to ask the building owner, who lives on the second floor”.
“We kept our doors and windows closed since the raid began. In the morning, we heard a saddened voice over police microphone saying “Jebunnesa, please come out, I want to see you alive. You will face no torture,” said Rubel, a senior bank officer who lived on the second floor of the house.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque said, “Bangladesh’s policy is to show zero tolerance towards terrorism and militancy. The CTTC members laid siege to the building at 2:00am acting on tip off, and urged the militants to surrender.”
“Four surrendered with a pistol, six rounds bullets and some explosives. They have been taken to the DB office for interrogation,” the IGP said.
DMP Commissioner Md Asaduzzaman Miah said that a team of CTTC started their drive around 2:00am and the residents of the building had already been shifted due to security measure.
The raid on a militant hideout in Dhaka ended with two killed in suicide blast, the DMP boss said.
“The four surrendered to the police along with a pistol and several bullets when the law enforcers, using a loudspeaker, asked the “militants” to surrender, said Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
They were taken to the headquarters of Detective Branch of police, a police official said.
“We called up Jebunnesa’s mother and his brother to the spot for convincing her to surrender in the morning,” CTTC sources said.
