Two 'militants' killed in Bangladesh pre-dawn raid

Two suspected Islamist militants were killed during a raid by Bangladesh's security forces here, officials said on Monday.

Rapid Action Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Ashique Billah told Efe news the suspected Islamists blew themselves up during the pre-dawn raid in the Mohammadpur area.

"We had some information and we went to check it in the night. When we knocked at a house, someone from the next house started firing at us." The security forces retaliated and the firing continued for about an hour, he added.

Around the morning prayer time, 45-60 minutes before the sunrise, the militants "threw few grenades and low-level cocktails (crude bomb) at us", Billah said, adding there was a big explosion about 5 a.m. We were waiting for daylight when our commando team, bomb disposal unit and fire brigade to join us, he said.

"In drone surveillance, we found no living person in the house. Our commandos raided the house and found two bodies blown in parts. The bomb disposal unit found four-five unexploded bombs," he said.

The bodies, which could not be identified, had been sent for forensic tests, he added. "We suspect they were Islamists terrorists because they fired at us raising Allahu Akbar (Allah is greatest of all) slogan, but don't know to which group they belonged," Billah said.

Bangladesh launched crackdown on Islamists following an attack on a Dhaka cafe in 2016 that killed 22 people. Though the attack was claimed by the Islamic States, the government blamed local Islamist group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) for the attack.

Around 70 people, including bloggers, intellectuals, foreigners and members of religious minorities in Bangladesh, were killed in a series of attacks between 2013 and 2016.

--IANS

soni/pcj