Police put on alert across Bangladesh

Police personnel have received alerts from their headquarters following police fatalities in bomb attacks during the ongoing raid on a militant hideout at Sylhet.

"Police in every range and every district were cautioned yesterday," said Deputy Inspector General of Police (media) AKM Shahidur Rahman.

Law enforcers were seen deployed on Kalshi Road at Dhaka's Mirpur on Sunday as part of intensified security measures.

Law enforcers cordoned off a terror hideout at Shibbari in Sylhet's South Surma during the early hours of Friday.

After almost 30 hours, para-commandos of the army started a final assault and rescued the civilians trapped inside different apartments in the two hideouts.

Two consecutive explosions occurred at nearby Pathhanparha on Saturday evening just after the army briefed media from the scene.

The blasts killed six including two police officers and injured at least 43 people including three officials of RAB and police.

Militant activities, curbed in back-to-back anti-terror operations that followed the Gulshan and Sholakia terror attacks, seem to be re-emerging since March this year.

Mar 6: Assailants attempt to snatch away death-row convict and Harkatul Jihad leader Mufti Hannan and his associates from a prison van taking them to Kashimpur Jail after a court session.

Mar 7: Two suspected members of the newly-revived Jama'atul Islam Mujahideen (JMB) attack police with bombs during a routine search on a bus at Comilla. They are caught and one of them is taken along in police raid on a 'militant den' at Mirsarai where weapons, bombs were being stored.

Mar 15: A militant couple is arrested with explosives from a house at Sitakunda's Amirabad. A house in neighbouring ward Premtala is raided based on their confessions.

Mar 16: After cordoning off the building for 19 hours, police begin 'Operation Assault Sixteen'. Four suspects are killed in suicide blast and gunfire. A child's dead body, torn up in a blast, is also found.

Mar 17: A 'suicide bomber' climbs over the wall enclosing the construction site for the Rapid Action Battalion's (RAB) new headquarters in Dhaka's Ashkona. He dies in a blast while being pursued by security personnel.   

Mar 18: RAB personnel shoot dead a man who drove a motorcycle into a check post at Khilgaon's 'Sheikher Jaiga' at 4am. Explosives were found strapped to his body, officials said.

Mar 20: Two houses at Chittagong's Akbar Shah area are raided but nothing suspicious is found.

Mar 23: Acting on a tip-off, counter-terror police encircle a building at Sylhet's Shibbari. Grenades are hurled outside by militant suspects holed up inside 'Atia Mahal'. SWAT and bomb-disposal teams arrive from Dhaka to join raid.

Mar 24: A man dies in a blast at a police box near the Shahjalal Airport in Dhaka. Powerful explosives recovered from his trolley bag.

Mar 25: Army para-commandos take over anti-terror operation at Shibbari. Seventy-eight civilians trapped inside the buildings' flats are evacuated. But as army hold briefing on operation, six people die in blasts a kilometre away from the cordoned-off buildings.    

Police suspect those arrested and shot in recent raids in Comilla, Chittagong and Dhaka are operatives of the Neo-JMB (Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh).

The banned outfit had made their presence known by executing simultaneous bomb attacks at 63 districts on Aug 17, 2005.

Source: bdnews24