Two women surrender in Bangladesh militant hideout raid

Two suspected female militants surrendered on Wednesday after Bangladeshi security forces raided the hideout of a banned Islamist group under siege in the country's Narsingdi district.

Bangladesh's Counter-Terrorism Police Unit Chief Monirul Islam said that the operation at the second militant hideout in the district was over, Xinhua news agency reported.

He said the female militants, who are students of a private university in Dhaka, surrendered at about 3 p.m.

Security forces surrounded two buildings in separate places in the district on Monday night that they suspected to be militant hideouts.

After operation at the first hideout on Tuesday, bodies of two militants including that of a woman were found.

"We're primarily sure all the four militants of both the hideouts are members of Neo-JMB," Islam said.

The Neo-JMB, an offshoot of the banned militant outfit JMB (Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh), was blamed for the deadly July 1, 2016 attack on a Spanish cafe in Dhaka, which killed 22 people, mostly foreigners.

Since the cafe attack, the Bangladeshi police conducted a series of large-scale operations against militants.

--IANS

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