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DHAKA: Two militants linked to the extremist group behind July’s Dhaka cafe siege that left 22 people dead were killed Saturday after Bangladesh police raided a hideout in the capital, officials said.
Security forces, acting on a tip, besieged a flat in Dhaka’s Dakshinkhan neighborhood for more than 12 hours, with the operation coming to an end after officers exchanged gun-fire with the militants, police said.
A child was also injured when one of the militants, a woman who was holding the child, exploded a vest she was wearing.
“Two extremists were killed including a woman who detonated a suicide vest,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Masudur Rahman told AFP.
He said the two were members of a faction of the JMB (Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh), the banned extremist outfit blamed for a wave of attacks including the July 1 massacre at a Dhaka restaurant in which 22 people, mostly foreigners, were killed.
Dhaka police chief Asaduzzaman Mia said the female militant exploded the vest in an attempt to target the security forces.
“The woman came forward and tried to come near police... she conducted suicide blast,” Mia told reporters after the raid.
Bangladesh has been reeling from a wave of attacks on foreigners, rights activists and members of religious minorities.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government blames local militant groups like JMB for the carnage, rejecting claims by the Daesh group and Al Qaeda.
Since the July massacre, security forces have shot dead nearly 50 militants including a Canadian of Bangladeshi origin who was accused of masterminding the restaurant attack.
Reporter arrested over labor unrest
A local television journalist in Bangladesh has been arrested for inciting unrest in one of the country’s biggest garment manufacturing zones, police said Saturday.
Nazmul Huda has been accused of “inaccurate reporting” on almost daily protests in Ashulia — home to Bangladesh’s biggest garment plants that make clothing for top Western brands like GAP, Zara and H&M — according to a senior officer.
“He is accused of inciting illegal protests, holding secret meetings with seven labor leaders whom we’ve arrested, and trying to destabilize the government,” head of Dhaka district police S. M. Shafiur Rahman told AFP.
He added that police have charged Huda under controversial information and technology laws, which have been widely used in Bangladesh to crack down on dissent.
Huda’s arrest comes after mass protests by thousands of workers prompted the closure of 55 garment factories in Ashulia, on the outskirts of capital Dhaka.
Bangladesh’s $30 billion garment industry has a woeful history of poor conditions for its four million workers, who are also among the lowest paid in the world’s textile sector.
Those in Ashulia launched a strike two weeks ago to protest the firing of 121 colleagues, and subsequently demanded their salaries be tripled from 5,300 taka ($67) — the current monthly minimum wage — to 16,000 taka.
Several hundred policemen have been deployed in the industrial zone since the strike began and at least seven people who were leading the strike have been arrested.