Jhenidah 'militant might have died during action'

The militant, who set up a bomb-making factory and stored a huge cache of explosives in a Jhenidah house, was suspected to have been among the four militants killed in Chapainawabganj den in a mango orchard at Shibnagar of Shibganj upazila.

The photo of Abdullah, a Muslim convert who escaped the April 21 Jhenidah raid, had a similarity with that of a militant killed in the northern bordering district on Thursday in the operation codenamed “Eagle Hunt”, said Monirul Islam, chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit yesterday.

Briefing reporters at DMP media centre, the CTTC chief, however, said they would be able to ascertain his identity after conducting DNA test with samples collected from his family members.

One of them was identified as Rafiqul Islam Abu, who came from a pro-Jamaat family. According to CTTC officials, Abu's wife Sumaiya Begum brought him into militancy after they got married nine years ago.

One hour before the operation came to an end, members of the Special Weapons And Tactics were able to bring Sumaiya, injured with gunshot, along their six-year-old daughter Khadiza out of the den.

Sumaiya told police that two persons including one individual named Abdullah came to their house from Jhenidah days before the operation.

The officials suspect that Abdullah took shelter at the den after police had raided his two-room tin-roofed house at Porahati village in Jhenidah on April 21 in another operation codenamed “Southpaw”, CTTC officials said.

MILITANTS' BODIES BURIED

The bodies of the four militants were buried at Fakirpara of Chapainawabganj municipality graveyard early Saturday, reports our Chapainawabganj Correspondent.

Three of them were killed in suicide blasts and the other one, Abu, died from bullet wounds, according to one of the doctors who conducted autopsies on them on Friday.

Meanwhile, being ordered by a court, police sent Sumaiya's daughter to a safe home in Rajshahi.

Police on Friday filed a case with Shibganj Police Station under the Anti-terrorism Act against Sumaiya.