“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.
Advertisement
Chowdhury was said to be the mastermind of the terror attack in Gulshan cafe on July 1, in which 20 hostages, including 18 foreigners, were killed. “YThey three four-five grenades at police and fired from AK22 rifles”, Bangladesh national police chief AKM Shahidul Hoque said in an AFP report on Al-Jazeera’s website.
Both Isil and a branch of Al-Qaeda have claimed responsibility for numerous attacks attributed to JMB, leading to criticism from anti-terror experts that the government is reluctant to admit that global jihadist groups have a presence in the country.
Amarasingam said in an email that there isn’t much evidence available about Chowdhury’s role in the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, but he seemed to be involved in expanding the group’s network.
Since 2013, authorities say, more than 50 terrorist attacks have been carried out by extremists in Bangladesh, the Muslim-majority nation of 160 million.
The identity of suspected mastermind Tamim Chowdhury was confirmed last Saturday.
“The main mastermind of the Holey Artisan (attack) has been eliminated”, Hasina told reporters at her office, referring to the Gulshan cafe incident.
He used to frequent their flat in Kalyanpur and have meetings with them, give motivational speeches and guide them on planning militant attacks, according to a statement in a case filed following the police operation named “Storm 26”, the Daily Star said.
Police have announced a reward of Dollars 25,000 for information leading to the arrest of Zia, who was sacked from the army in 2011 for an aborted coup bid against Hasina.
Police carried out Saturday’s raid on a two-story house in the Narayanganj district outside of Dhaka after receiving a tip on Chowdhury’s whereabouts.
The suspected militants singled out non-Muslims and foreigner hostages in the attack.
Both ISIL and a local branch of al-Qaeda have claimed responsibility for numerous attacks.
Advertisement
Police arrested Tahmid Hasib Khan, a University of Toronto student earlier this month. The following attack, on July 7, led to the death of two citizens and two police officers.
