Cop injured during raid on 'militant den' in city

An inspector of the Detective Branch of police was injured in an attack allegedly by militants during a raid on a flat at Uttar Badda in the capital last night.

The flat was being used as a militant den by members of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), detectives claimed.

Two members of the outfit were arrested during the raid, DIG Monirul Islam, chief of Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told reporters last night.

However, their identities were not disclosed immediately.

The injured policeman is Baharuddin Faruqui, 45. With injuries in his hand and head, he was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and later shifted to a private hospital.

Monirul said on information that three ABT members were staying at a flat on the ground floor of the four-storey building at Badda's Purbo Para, a police team raided the flat around 8:00pm. Two members of the gang were present in the house, he added.

Baharuddin was hacked with sharp weapons by militants in a scuffle during the raid, he said.

Police recovered bags and packets from the flat. It could not be known what was there in those bags.

After the raid, law enforcers picked up house owner Hanif, a former engineer of Bangladesh Television, his son, and another person for questioning.

Although Monirul claimed that no one managed to flee during the raid, several eyewitnesses said they saw two men fleeing the scene during the raid.

Next to the house is Baitul Mamur Jame Masjid and president of the mosque's management committee, Mohammad Abu Taher, said he reached in front of the house around 8:00pm and saw locals handing a handcuffed man over to the police.

Soon two men came running and one of them had firearms in his both hands. He fired several shots from the guns before fleeing, Abu Taher added.

Wishing anonymity, another witness said he heard the fleeing men shouting, “Allahu Akbar.”

The attack on police happened three days after the Dhaka Metropolitan Police formed “Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit” for combating militancy and terrorism.

Meanwhile, following the Badda raid, police were raiding a house at Nabodoy Housing in the city's Mohammadpur as of filing of this report at 2:00am, according to Mohammadpur Police Station.