The police hailed Saturday’s raid, where security forces stormed a militant hideout outside Dhaka and killed three suspected Islamists, including a Bangladesh-born Canadian accused of organising last month’s attack in Dhaka that left 22 people dead, as a major blow to extremists in the Muslim-majority country, which has been reeling from recent killings.
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The Bangladesh security services appear to have finally started gaining headway in their response to increasing Islamic fundamentalist attacks in the country.
The man, Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, a 30-year-old Canadian citizen of Bangladeshi descent, was one of three militants killed in the raid outside Dhaka, the capital, the officials said.
While Bangladesh police maintains that Tamim and his cohorts are part of Neo-JMB, a faction that had split from the original banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), worldwide media reports, citing several Islamic State (IS) publications, described him as the coordinator of IS’s Bangladesh operations.
He initially said four militants had been killed but later revised the number to three.
They say two other suspected militants were killed in the standoff. Twenty-two people were killed in the attack.
Md. Abdul Quaiyum, president of the Bangladesh Canada Association of Windsor Essex, said the Chowdhury family was known in the community, though not very well.
A series of attacks on free thinkers, bloggers, atheists and foreigners – around 45 people were killed in such strikes in over two years – had triggered global concern on Bangladesh’s internal security, causing embarrassment to Hasina.
Earlier this month, authorities in Dhaka had announced a $25,000 reward forMr. “A successful operation just ahead of his visit would prove Bangladesh’s ability to deal with terror elements on its own”, said a diplomat of a western country.
Khan was with friends at the bakery when five gunmen attacked.
On July 1, five militants entered a bakery in Gulshan Tana – an affluent area of Dhaka where numerous embassies are – loaded up with machetes, firearms and crude bombs, and took dozens of hostages.
“The duration of the operation was one hour”.
“The gunfight erupted this morning after police started raiding a building at Naraynganj’s Pikeparha”, Counter-terrorism Unit’s Additional Deputy Commissioner Sanowar Hossain was quoted as saying by the bdnews24.Com.
Authorities said they recovered an AK-22 rifle and two live grenades from the second-floor apartment.
“They were asked to surrender, but they refused. Today, we came to know that they are militants”, said Amin.
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Members of Canada’s Bangladeshi community disavowed an Ontario resident killed over the weekend who Bangladesh police say masterminded a terrorist attack last month. “The mastermind (of Dhaka cafe attack) Tamim and two others were gunned down during the raid”.
