Blasts during Sylhet hideout operation kill 6
At least six people were killed and more than 40 others injured in two blasts near the suspected militant hideout in Sylhet’s Shibbari on Saturday evening.
MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital director Ruhul Amin said four bodies were brought to the hospital. Among the injured, leiutenant colonel Abul Kalam Azad was sent to Dhaka.
Of the deceased, the policeman was Md Abu Faysal, inspector of Sylhet Metropolitan Police, while the civilians were Wahidul Islam Apu, 26, from Chandnighat area, and Shahidul Islam, a resident of Dariapara in Sylhet.
Apu was a third-year student of Accounting department at Madan Mohan College in Sylhet, said Apu’s friend Joysharma Chowdhury.
Later, Jalabad police officer-in-charge (OC) Akhtar Hossen said OC (investigation) Monirul Islam of the police station also died at OMCH while under treatment. Bangladesh Chhatra League’s South Surma upazila unit assistant environment affairs secretary Jannatun Nayeem has died in the incident, confirmed Sylhet district unit BCL vice president Rashedul Islam.
Identity of the other could not be known immediately.
According to police and locals, the first blast occurred around 6:45pm outside of the five-storey ‘Atia Mahal’ where members of joint forces were conducting an operation, named ‘Operation Twilight’.
Witnesses said two people riding a motorcycle reached a place near a media briefing, and 'carried out an explosion' a few minutes after the briefing.
The first blast injured more than 30 people including a journalist.
Another bomb exploded around 7:55pm near ‘Atia Mahal’ in Purba Pathantala Mosque area, hurting at least six policemen, among others.
Among the injured, a total of 40 persons are now taking treatment at the Osmani Medical. Of them, four are in critical condition.
They are Shirin Miah, Monirul Islam, officer-in-charge of Jalalabad police station, and Jony Lal Dey, assistant sub-inspector of South Surma police station, said hospital sources.
Earlier in the day, amid explosions and gunshots the members of joint forces, stormed the ‘militants' den; in the afternoon after and rescued 78 members of 28 families trapped in the building.
Sound of gunshots and big explosions rocked the area during the army-led operation that began around 2:00pm.
After about a 30-hour siege to the 'militants' den' by joint forces , a team of Para Commando Battalion of Bangladesh Army, led by GOC Major General Anwarul Momen, launched operation, 'Twilight', in the building named 'Atia Mahal' around 8:46am, said Musa.
Briefing reporters about the operation on behalf of the Army in the evening, Brig gen Md Fakhrul Ahsan told reporters that the operation is taking time as they are conducting it very carefully with explosives lying scattered here and there in different rooms and staircases of the five-storey building having 150 rooms.
"Militants are creating obstacles to the commandos' operation by hurling explosives," he said.
The army officer said 78 residents, including 27 women and 21 children, of the building were rescued in three phases and kept them in a school of the area.
"Our main target was to rescue safely the innocent people got trapped inside the building, and we've succeeded in it. But, militants are still there inside the building and we're proceeding very carefully removing explosives," he added.
Fakhrul, however, could not exactly say when the operation could be concluded.
Asked whether the drive will continue all the night, he said commandos will take the decision assessing the situation.
Musa said the journalists have been kept one kilometre away from the building for safety.
He said law enforcers had asked the militants to surrender before the operation, but they did not respond to their call.
A team of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT), Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police took position in front of the house.
On Friday night, army commandos joined the joint forces to raid the house after police cordoned it off in the early hours of Friday.
A SWAT unit reached the spot around 4pm on Friday from Dhaka. Another team of Para-Commando Battalion of Bangladesh Army had also been there around 8:00pm on Friday to join the drive.
Later, the joint forces comprising district police, and members of SWAT, including a five-member bomb disposal unit, RAB and the Army commandos started the preparations to enter the five-storey building named 'Atia Mahal'.
Besides, police, members of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), Detective Branch (DB) of police, City Special Branch (SB), Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) and other law enforcement also were there.
Police suspected that the militants might have taken their position in a room on the east side of a flat on the ground floor of the building.
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