The raid on a militant den in Borohat of Moulvibazar, code-named Operation Maximus, was suspended due to low light after police faced stiff resistance.
CTTC Chief Monirul Islam announced the suspension at a press briefing near the hideout around 7pm on Friday, adding that the operation will be resumed Saturday morning if the weather was favourable.
Operation Maximus appears to be taking a similar path to the recent anti-militancy operations in Shibbari and Nasirpur, where law enforcement officials had to approach the hideouts slowly and with caution as militants had planted improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at the entrances.
The CTTC chief told reporters at the briefing: “You have probably heard a number of explosions while you were here. The militants have set off a number of explosions inside the building. Whenever SWAT has tried to enter the hideout, they have set off an explosion.”
The militants are believed to still be in the hideout and in possession of a huge cache of IEDs, the CTTC chief added.
The CTTC chief said that another reason for the slow progress was that the building being used as the hideout had a large number of rooms, making it difficult to navigate. Also, the hideouts window panes were strong enough to deflect bullets and another building in the boundary area was impeding their advance.
In addition, Moulvibazar Additional Superintendent of Police Rowshanuzzaman Siddique told the Dhaka Tribune around 1:40pm that police Constable Kowsar Uddin had been injured and taken to Moulvibazar Sadar Hospital.
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At 8:30am Friday, Addl SP Rowshanuzzaman confirmed to reporters that the operation inside the Borohat hideout had begun. Subsequently, gunfighting and explosions were heard from inside the building throughout the day.
At around 11:30am, Sylhet Range DIG Kamrul Ahsan told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have seen the movement of three militants inside the den using a drone. A female militant is also inside.”
However, the total number of militants is yet to be verified.
Later, at 12:30pm, CTTC Chief Monirul Islam said it was suspected that a top militant leader was inside the den. It is believed that this militant leader may be former army officer Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque.
‘We have never seen such gore’
The autopsy doctor who examined the seven dead bodies from Moulvibazar’s Nasirpur militant den Friday afternoon was stunned after seeing the gory condition of the bodies.
Autopsy team leader Dr Abu Imran of Moulvibazar Sadar Hospital said: “In my 12 year professional career, I have never seen bodies in such condition. We had only half of some of the bodies. For others we had only the heads. I could not stay composed after seeing the bodies of the four children”
The autopsy team leader added that the recovered bodies had been dead for between 24-48 hours. Furthermore, wire and splinters were found on the bodies.
The autopsy team said that the smallest child was only three months old, but they could not confirm its gender as only the head was recovered. The other three children were all girls under the age of ten.
Among the adults, the women were aged 25 and 35 while the man was aged 35. The man is believed to be the one who detonated the suicide vest.
