Suspected militant killed in Bangladesh

Motorbike rider tried to cross checkpoint with bag of explosives

Asuspected militant was yesterday shot dead by security forces when he tried to cross a checkpoint run by Bangladesh’s elite Rapid Action Battalion in Dhaka, a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a RAB camp here.

“The motorbike rider carrying a bag [of explosives] tried to cross the checkpost at Khilgaon [area] defying signals, forcing our men to fire gunshots that killed him instantly,” a RAB official told PTI.

RAB’s operations officer ASM Shakhawat Hossain said two personnel of the force at the checkpost were injured.

He said the bomb disposal experts found explosives in the bag carried by the suspected militant. An investigation was launched into the incident which appeared to be an abortive attempt of attack by the militants, he said.

Yesterday’s incident came a day after a Daesh (self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) suicide bomber blew himself up inside a camp of RAB near the Dhaka international airport on Friday.

The blast wounded two RAB men who were being treated at the nearby Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka Cantonment. It was the first attack Daesh had claimed in Bangladesh this year and 27th since September 2015.

Authorities issued a nationwide alert for all international and domestic airports and prisons in the country and ordered stepped up security after yesterday’s attack.

Bangladesh, however, ruled out the Daesh claim, calling it an act by homegrown militants.