B’desh commandos kill two Islamist extremists
Dhaka, March 26: Bangladesh army commandos shot dead two suspected Islamist extremists at a hideout in the northeast on Sunday, a day after six people died in explosions claimed by the Islamic State group.
“Our commandos could effectively engage two of them. We can confirm the two were killed,” Brigadier General Fakhrul Ahsan said in the city of Sylhet.
The Brig Gen said the commandos, armed with rocket launchers as well as rifles, located the men wearing suicide vests on the ground floor of a fivestorey building and shot them dead. “The suicide vest of one of them (who died) also exploded,” he said.
Ahsan said the operation was continuing because one or more of the extremists — who were well armed and equipped — were still holed up in the building where they had laid improvised explosive devices.
He did not comment on their identities but police said they were members of a homegrown Islamist militant outfit blamed for a wave of attacks in recent years.
On Saturday, two powerful bombs ripped through a crowd near the hideout, killing six people including two police officers and injuring about 50. The Islamic State’s claim of responsibility was rejected by the government and police.
The blasts went off some 400 metres from the hideout, targeting police and hundreds of onlookers who were watching the commando raid.
DCP of Sylhet Basudeb Banik said several of the injured were in critical condition, including the intelligence chief of the elite Rapid Action Battalion, which is tasked with combating Islamist extremism.