Police identify 7 militants

Police last night identified seven of the nine militants killed during a joint raid at their hideout in the capital's Kalyanpur on Tuesday.

The seven are Abdullah from Dinajpur, Abu Hakim Nayeem from Patuakhali, Taj-ul-Haque Rashiq from Dhaka's Dhanmondi, Atiquzzaman Khan from Gulshan and Shazad Rouf Arko from Bashundhara, Motiar Rahman from Satkhira and Jubayer Hossain from Noakhali.

Police said they identified the seven after matching their fingerprints with those on their National Identification Cards.

Around 8:00pm, the Detective Branch (DB) of police disclosed their addresses and photos on their national ID cards alongside the photos of the corpses.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police also uploaded the addresses and pictures of the seven on its news portal and also on its official Facebook page.

Earlier in the day, Deputy Commissioner (Media) of DMP Masudur Rahman told reporters that DNA tests of the dead would be conducted upon court orders.

Identities of the two others remain unknown.

The nine were killed in a special drive codenamed "Storm-26" in the early morning of Tuesday.

Police started a block raid in the neighborhood and stumbled across the militants' den on the fourth floor of the house named Taj Manzil, locally known as Jahaj Building.

Before striking the hideout, police captured a suspected militant named Rakibul Hasan Reagan around 1:30am.

He was shot by police after he jumped from the building and attempted to flee, police said. 

The raid came in the wake of two back-to-back attacks -- the July 1 Gulshan siege and the Eid day attack near Sholakia Eidgah.

Law enforcers had been on high alert after the two deadly attacks, and in the last two weeks Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina twice warned of further militant attacks. 

It all came following three years of targeted attacks by suspected militants, killing writers, publishers, secular bloggers, university professors and member of minority communities, including Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Shia Muslims in the Sunni-majority country.

Terror group Islamic State took credit for many of the past attacks, including the Gulshan siege where militants killed 20 hostages, 17 of them foreigners.

The government insists IS has no presence in the country.

Those killed on Tuesday were in black outfits and red-white scarves similar to the ones the five Gulshan attackers were seen wearing in the photos with the IS flag in the background. The photos of the five were posted by US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activities. 

The black outfit and the scarf are often seen in pictures of IS militants in the media.

Islamic State's another trademark symbol is its black and white flag with Arabic lettering. Black cloths resembling the IS flag were also found at the Kalyanpur flat.

DETAILS OF THE SEVEN

Abdullah, 23, of Ballavpur village of Nababganj in Dinajpur; Abu Hakim Nayeem, 33, of Kuakata village of Kalapara in Patuakhali; Taj-ul-Haque Rashiq, 25, of Dhaka's Dhanmondi; Atiquzzaman Khan, 24, of Gulshan; Shazad Rouf Arko, 24, of Bashundhara; Md Motiar Rahman, 24, of Omarpur village of Tala in Satkhira; and Md Jubayer Hossain, 20, of Paschim Maijdee village of Shudharam in Noakhali, according to police. 

Shazad comes from a well-off family. He studied at reputed educational institutions at home and abroad. On completion of his studies, he went on to work at a multinational company, police said. 

Jubayer was a second-year student of political science at Noakhali Government College, but he was irregular in his class. On June 15, he went missing, said relatives. 

Rashiq graduated in electrical and electronic engineering from a reputed private university in Dhaka and went missing in January, said a next door neighbour.

Motiur had been living in Gazipur for the last seven to eight years and was working at a garment factory. In his childhood, he moved to his maternal uncle's house, just a few kilometres of their home, following separation of his parents, said relatives. 

Motiur, whose father is a fisherman, studied up to class two or three. Although he moved with his mother, he used to visit his father. He visited his father before the last Eid-ul-Azha and stayed with him for five to six months, according to relatives. 

Abdullah cut ties with his family after he came to Dhaka following his last visit to Dinajpur around a year ago, said relatives and locals.

He started going to a madrasa in Rajshahi at the age of eight. 

He came to Dhaka in 2012, but his family and relatives had no idea what he was doing in the capital. His father is a mason and he leads a simple life, relatives said.

Nayeem worked as a construction worker at a real estate company in Patuakhali from 2002 to 2007.

He left the company in 2007, said Altaf Hossain, assistant manager of the company, adding that they did not know what he did afterwards.

Atikuzzaman's neighbours said they did not see him for the past six months.

One driver of a nearby house who claimed to have known Atik for about 12 years said Atik had gone to schools in Gulshan-Banani areas.

Though from a rich family, Atik would not show it off and he used to say his prayers regularly, added the driver, asking not to be named.

Meanwhile, one family from Chittagong suspects that one of the nine is their son, and family members are expected to travel to Dhaka today to identify the body. 

AUTOPSIES

Each of the nine was hit by seven to eight bullets, according to autopsy findings.

“Most of the bullets struck them on their backs,” Sohel Mahmud, assistant professor at Dhaka Medical College's forensic department, told reporters.

They were shot neither from a very close range nor from a long distance, the doctor added.

There were no other injuries on their bodies. 

Doctors have kept samples of their blood, hair, urine and viscera body tissues for further tests such as if they were on drugs and for DNA sampling.

According to the doctors, the nine died around 5:00am on Tuesday.

HOUSE OWNER'S WIFE REMANDED

Momtaz Parveen, wife of the house owner, was placed on a two-day remand yesterday.

Metropolitan Magistrate Nurun Nahar Yasmin passed the order after Sub-inspector of Mirpur Model Police Station Bozlar Rahman produced her before the court, seeking five days' remand.

The court granted the remand petition as the house owner did not provide police with information about the tenants, said the SI.

Earlier in the day, Momtaz was shown arrested on suspicion under section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).