Bangla police kills militant, injures three women terrorists

DHAKA: Bangladesh police today shot dead a militant who played a key role in carrying out the cafe siege, and injured three other women terrorists in a gunfight.

The members of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit have killed one militant and captured three others, including the wife of deceased New Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh leader Murad during a raid at a militant den in the capital's Azimpur area.

Acting on a tip-off, a group of policemen carried out a raid at a house in Azimpur, said Masudur Rahman, additional deputy commissioner (ADC) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Sensing the presence of police, four militants, including three women, who were inside the house with sharp weapons, swooped on the law enforcers, triggering a "gunfight", he said.

At one point, the militants also a blasted grenade at the law enforcers, leaving eight persons, including five policemen injured, Rahman said.

"One of the three women is critically injured," he added.

"Police have rescued three children from the spot and they have been sent to Victim Support Centre (VSC) in Tejgaon," he was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune.

A senior counter-terrorism officer said they suspect the extremist to be Abdul Karim, a deputy of Tamim Chowdhury, who was the leader of a faction of the banned Islamist militant outfit, Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and was accused of being behind the cafe attack.

"We have found remarkable similarities between the face of the dead militant and that of Karim, who rented a house for the Gulshan attackers," he added.

The JMB has been blamed for a wave of attacks on foreigners and religious minorities in the last three years.

At least 28 Islamist extremists have been shot dead by Bangladesh security forces since the cafe assault in which mostly foreigners, including an Indian, were killed.