3 alleged militants killed in Bangladesh
DHAKA: Three alleged extremists were killed yesterday in a raid by police as security was stepped up before Pope Francis’s landmark visit to the Muslim-majority nation, officials said.
Police said the trio died in suspected suicide blasts after they opened fire and threw bombs at anti-terror officers, who cordoned off a house where they were hiding near the Indian border.
Rapid Action Battalion police surrounded the home following a tip-off and urged those holed up inside to surrender but they opened fire instead, said the force’s local commander Mahbubul Alam.
“Moments later there were several explosions and the house caught on fire. Later we found three mangled bodies, one of them with a severed head.”
He said the three were active members of Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) — a homegrown militant group blamed for a string of deadly attacks on foreigners, atheist bloggers, rights activists and religious minorities in recent years.
Since 2015 at least three Christians have been hacked to death in attacks blamed on the JMB.
Bangladesh authorities have tightened security in the capital, with police patrolling around churches and places where Francis will visit.
“There will be the highest security measures for the pope,” said city police spokesman Masudur Rahman.
“We have taken the measures in consultations with the Christian community here,” he added.
The pope will meet a group of Rohingya refugees here and conduct a mass at Suhrawardi Udyan, a colonial-era park in the capital, with at least 80,000 people expected to attend.
Christians make up less than 0.5 per cent of Bangladesh’s population and the minority has in recent years faced attacks by radicals.