The Asian Age

Top anti- terror police officer’s wife, Christian man brutally killed

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Dhaka, June 5: The wife of a police official known for battling Islamist extremism was shot dead in south- eastern Bangladesh on Sunday, in what police suspected was the latest in a series of attacks by militants in the mainly Muslim South Asian nation. Three assailants riding a motorcycle stabbed and then shot Mahmuda Aktar, 33, when she was on her way home after putting her son onto a school bus in the port city of Chittagong, said Humayan Kabir, deputy police commission­er of Chittagong.

“She was stabbed first. Then they shot her in the head three times,” Mr Kabir said. Her husband, police superinten­dent Babul Aktar, played an important role in apprehendi­ng top militants in Bangladesh’s southeast and Mr Kabir said the killing could have militant links. Mr Aktar, who was recently posted to police headquarte­rs in the capital, Dhaka, busted several hideouts of the banned group Jamaat- ul-Mujahideen, which has been active in the recent surge of violence.

His team also arrested one of the group’s leaders, who was later killed in a grenade blast during a police raid in October. The government has launched a security crackdown on Islamist militant groups who want to impose strict Islamic law in Bangladesh. Also on Sunday, a Christian businessma­n was hacked to death in Bangladesh on

Mahmuda Aktar, the wife of superinten­dent of police Babul Aktar, who led drives against militants and drug cartels, was stabbed and shot dead by 3 bike- borne assailants in front of her minor son in Chittagong

Sunil Gomes, 65, was murdered near a church in Banpara village in an attack claimed by the Islamic State

Sunday by machete- wielding men near a church in an attack claimed by the Islamic State.

Sunil Gomes, 65, was murdered near a church in Banpara village, home to one of the oldest Christian communitie­s in Bangladesh, in northweste­rn Notore district.

The assailants fled immediatel­y from the scene after killing Gomes. His body was recovered from his grocery shop, police superinten­dent Shyamal Mukherjee said. “We are yet to know the details, but our policemen are gathering informatio­n about the murder,” Mukherjee said. But hours after the incident, US- based SITE Intelligen­ce Group quoted Islamic State’s “Amaq agency” to report that the terror group claimed responsibi­lity for the murder.

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 ?? — AFP ?? The body of Mahmuda Aktar, the wife of a top Bangladesh­i anti- terror officer, is lifted up by policemen after she was shot dead near her home in Chittagong, Bangladesh, on Sunday.
— AFP The body of Mahmuda Aktar, the wife of a top Bangladesh­i anti- terror officer, is lifted up by policemen after she was shot dead near her home in Chittagong, Bangladesh, on Sunday.

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