The militants who were killed in a gunfight with the law enforcers early on Tuesday changed their outfits after Fazr prayers and put on black punjabis, said a neighbour who claimed to have observed them time to time since midnight till dawn from an adjacent building.

The neighbour, in his 20s, lives on the fifth floor of a building that is very close to the militant den in Kalyanpur.

He along with his family members caught glimpses of what the youths were doing in their fourth-floor apartment.

They often came out to the balcony and kept the door to the balcony open until after the Fazr prayers, he told The Daily Star yesterday.

The neighbour, who kept watching these men until dawn, said they were all wearing “normal clothes” during the night. They also had guns and knives on then, he said, preferring anonymity on security grounds.

“Through the balcony door I saw them burn something inside their room,” he said. “Later, I learnt that it was money.”

He said the youths were seen in black punjabis only after the Fazr Azan. But then they shut the balcony door.

Around 1:30am on Tuesday after the law enforcers cordoned off the house popularly known as Jahajbari, the youths spoke with police in a loud voice.

Another neighbour said he saw some young men shouting and screaming from the fourth floor of Jahajbari.

“We thought they were screaming at police... They were cursing the police and calling them names,” he said.