Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of the RAB’s legal and media wing, told journalists that the four suspects were the only residents of the building, which is in Ashulia, the hub of the country’s ready-made garments industry. He said, based on tips, a RAB team surrounded the house around 1am (1900 GMT Saturday) yesterday, cordoned off the house and started operations that lasted almost half a day. The militants responded with gunshots and explosives.
At around 12pm, one suspected militant came out from the house and surrendered. The rest came out and surrendered within the course of the next hour, the RAB reported.
Khan said initial investigations showed the men had links to a new faction of the mainstream Jamaatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh, an Islamic State-inspired group in Bangladesh behind an attack on a Dhaka cafe last year that left 18 foreigners dead.
Bangladesh’s government denies an Islamic State presence in the country, despite the group’s statements that it is active there.
