Two members of banned militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) have been killed in a suicide blast during a raid on their hideout in Chittagong.
Acting on a tip-off, several units of RAB 7 cordoned off a house at Sonapahar village under Mirsarai Upazila – suspecting it to be a militant hideout – around 3:30am on Friday.
The militants hiding inside the house fired at RAB, triggering a gunfight, RAB officials said.
The exchange of fire continued for about half an hour. At one stage, the militants exploded two bombs when RAB members asked them to surrender.
The two militants killed in the suicide blast are yet to be identified.
The magnitude of the blast partially destroyed the roof, damaged the walls, and ripped off the windows of the house, RAB 7 Deputy Commanding Officer Safayat Jamil Fahim told the Dhaka Tribune.
“We interrogated the owner and caretaker of the house. They told us that there was also a female militant. They had been living in the house since September 29,” he added.
The female militant somehow managed to escape, he further said.
RAB’s bomb disposal squad destroyed two IEDs, and recovered: three hand grenades, ammunition, three pistols, and an SMG.
An AK 22 rifle and raw materials for explosives were also recovered from the militant hideout.
RAB’s Legal and Media Wing Director Mufti Mahmud Khan said that the militants were planning to carry out a large-scale attack on the Chittagong court.
The severely disfigured bodies of the two militants have been sent to the Chittagong Medical College Hospital for autopsy.