Army Para Commandos found the bodies of four militants, including that of a female one, at militant den Atia Mahal at Shibbari of Dakkhin Surma upazila on Monday.
Brig Gen Fakhrul Ahsan, spokesperson of the operation, ‘Twilight,’ came up with the disclosure at a press conference near Aita Mahal at 7:30pm.
“We’d information that four militants, including three men and a woman, were there in the house and we’ve found all the four bodies. We think there is no militant alive inside the building,” he told reporters.
Two of the bodies were handed over to police while two others lying on the ground floor of the building with suicidal vests, the army official said.
He, however, said their operation is not over yet. “Our operation is still on and it may take further time to conclude it.”
Fakhrul said, “We aren’t concluding the operation right now as there’s a process to do that. The search is still on. CID’s Crime Scene unit will arrive at the spot after the search.”
Asked whether there is any militant kingpin among the four killed militants, he said he has no such specific information about it.
Mentioning that Rab and police are collecting the samples of dead bodies, the army official said their specific identities can be known later after the sample test.
Asked whether the militants committed suicide or got killed in firing by the Para Commandos, Fakhrul said they were killed in army members’ firing as their suicidal vests are still with their bodies.
He said they conducted the drive successfully and no Army member was injured in the incident. “The situation was always under the commandos’ control. We can say this operation is a great success for the Army.”
As his attention was drawn to the Home Minister’s comment that two militants were killed on Sunday, Fakhrul Ahsan said the rest two were killed Monday “But it can’t be said now when exactly they were killed.”
He said though the militants were killed, huge explosive are still there scattered inside the building.
About the two unrecovered dead bodies, the army official said they are planning how to retrieve these safely removing the suicidal vests.
Earlier, sounds of explosions and sporadic gunshots rocked Shibbari area of Dakkhin Surma upazila since morning.
Locals said firing started in the early morning and continued till afternoon at regular intervals.
They said they constantly heard the sounds of gunshots and explosions from 6:30am to 7am and again intermittently from 7am to 7:30am.
A big explosion was heard from the five-storey Atia Mahal around 3:15pm.
The Army-led operation, ‘Operation Twilight’, began on Saturday morning although police launched the raid on the militant den early Friday.
Meanwhile, the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Directorate has released five video footages on the ‘Operation Twilight’. The video clips were posted on ISPR’s official website on Monday.
In the first video footage, it is seen that Army para commandos are trying to enter ‘Atia Mahal’ by breaking a portion of a wall of the building while in the second video clip, the sounds of sporadic gunshots were heard.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Monday said the law enforcement agencies identified the ‘militant den’ based on intelligence information. “The Para Commando Battalion of Bangladesh Army is conducting the operation considering the security of the local residents,” he said while talking to reporters at the Secretariat in the capital.
Additional Commissioner of Sylhet Metropolitan Police SM Rokon Uddin said the bodies of all the six people who were killed in two bomb blasts in front of Gotatikor Madrasah adjacent to the militant den on Saturday, have been handed over to the family members with that of Khadim Shah of Doyabazar in Sunamganj and Shahidul Islam of Dariapara of the city being handed over on Monday.
Slain Police Inspector Monirul Islam was laid to eternal rest in Sadar upazila of Noakhali on Monday. He was buried at his family graveyard at Purbo Eojabalia village following a namaz-e-janaza at Mannan Nagar Model Academy ground.
However, Faruk, who was undergoing treatment at Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital after being hurt in the bomb blasts, fled from the hospital, he said.
Meanwhile, Shiplu Chowdhury, sub-inspector of Moglabazar Police Station, filed a case against unspecific number of unnamed people on Sunday night in connection with Saturday’s blasts, said Khairul Fazal, officer-in-charge of the police station.
source:UNB
