Bangladesh: Gunfire, Blasts Heard as Police Surround Suspected Militant Dens

Extremists hurled grenades at officers and shots were fired as police encircled two of three suspected militant dens in northeastern Bangladesh, where security forces moved in late Wednesday to flush them out, authorities said.

The police operations targeting militant hideouts in two locations in Moulvibazar district and a third one in Comilla district came a day after officials announced an end to a 72-hour raid by army commandos that targeted a Neo-JMB extremist den in northeastern Sylhet district.

Ten people were killed, including four suspected militants and two police officers, and some 50 others were injured during the course of that raid – the longest counter-terrorist operation in Bangladeshi history.

On Wednesday, police surrounded suspected militant hideouts in Borohat neighborhood and Nasirpur village in Moulvibazar district, and in Kotbari in Comilla district, about 160 km (100 miles) away.

The militants in Moulvibazar attacked police with explosives as they closed in, officials said. No injuries were reported.

“There are reports of firing and explosions at the houses [in Moulvibazar],” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told BenarNews.

“The militants responded by opening fire when they were asked to surrender,” Fazlur Rahman, the mayor of Moulvibazar, told reporters after visiting adjacent areas where two of the militant dens were located.

Full story: BenarNews

Jesmin Papri
Dhaka