Staff Reporter :The suspected Gulshan café attack mastermind Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury and two others were killed during a joint forces raid ‘Operation Hit Strong’ 27″ at a house in Narayanganj Sadar upazila on the outskirts of the city on Saturday morning.The two other suspected militants killed during the operation have been identified as Mohammad Iqbal and Malik.The special joint forces comprising Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, Special Weapon and Tactic Team (SWAT), Detective Branch of Police, member of elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-11 and Narayanganj police took part in the ‘Operation Hit Strong 27′. The joint forces had to take every inch of surrounding areas of the building cautiously since early Saturday to avoid public sufferings. Visiting the spot, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said Tamim chapter has now been closed. “As Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury along with his two close accomplices were killed, his chapter has been closed now. We will now be able to net the other militants,” he said.Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque, who also visited the spot, told journalists that nearly one-hour-long encounter ended at about 10.30am as the joint forces gunned down the three highly trained militants who were residing in the second floor of the three-storied building at Paikpara in Narayanganj.At least four grenades, AK-22 rifle, one pistol and huge explosives were recovered from the militants’ den, he said.The IGP said based on information extracted from the arrested suspected militants, the joint forces conducted the raid at the house at 9:36am and it ended at about 10:35am on Saturday. “A gang of 10-12 militants gathered on the second floor of the building owned by one Nuruddin Dewan to carry out another terrorist attacks,” he said. “Police confirmed Tamim’s death as his photo matched with one of the militants killed during the raid,” the IGP said. Additional Deputy Commissioner of the Bomb Disposal Unit of CTTC Mohammad Sanwar Hossain told journalists that acting on a tip off the special joint forces raided the second floor of the building at Paikpara adjacent to the Boro Koborsthan.Before the raid, police also cordoned off the area and evacuated the occupants of the building. Members of joint forces took position around building owned by Nooruddin Dewan and Boro Koborsthan since 2:00am on Saturday, the police official said.He said police began shooting targeting the second floor of house at about 9:30pm. The suspected militants hiding inside the house also hurled grenades and launched gun attacks on the cops. “We asked the militants to surrender first but as they did not respond to the law enforcers’ our forces began shooting targeting the militants,” Sanwar said, adding their first target was to arrest them alive. He said during the raid the militants destroyed all the documents, mobile phones and laptops.When the operation was over at about 10:30am, the joint forces stormed the building and found the bodies of two militants lying beside the main door of the apartment.”We found the body of Tamim in another room,” the police official said.Sanwar said five people rented the apartment two months back identifying two of themselves as the employees of Pharmaceuticals and one of them as a banker. It was assumed that they rented the house after the deadly Gulshan attack, he said.Earlier, DMP had announced a bounty of Tk20 lakh for information leading to the arrest of Tamim Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi-origin Canadian citizen. Tamim, the Bangladeshi-Canadian, is one of the masterminds of the Gulshan café attack.Tamim’s name came up on the list of 10 missing people released by law-enforcers after it emerged that Gulshan café killers and Sholakia attackers had been reported missing by their families.Intelligence officials say Tamim led the ‘Neo-JMB’.International media reports, citing several Islamic State publications, have described him as the coordinator of Middle East-based group’s Bangladesh chapter.The 30-year-old Tamim had reportedly been missing from Canada since 2013. His father Shafi Ahmed Chowdhury, who was a mariner, immigrated to Canada in the early 1970s.One of the two aides had an AK-22 semi-automatic weapon slung across his tummy. Both of them had t-shirts on.Police said the apartment in which Tamim and others stayed had very little furniture, just as it appeared in case of the Kalyanpur den that was busted July 26.It seems the terrorists had set up a temporary camp and were constantly changing hideouts.Local people said they heard sounds of bomb explosions at the building early Saturday morning. But the police said the criminals opened fire targeting the law enforcers who went to raid the house suspecting it a militant den.Police detained 10 persons, including the owner of the house Nuruddin Dewan, his wife and three sons, Faruk Hossain, Additional Superintendent of police of Narayanganj said. Meanwhile, bodies of the dead militants were sent to Narayanganj General Hospital (Victoria) morgue.Earlier on July 26, nine militants were killed during a special drive of the joint forces in Dhaka’s Kalyanpur, ending an overnight standoff that ensued with a raid to hunt down ‘militant den’.
