Two 'JMB men' killed in DB 'encounter'

Two alleged operatives of banned militant outfit JMB were killed in an “encounter” with law enforcers in the capital's Hazaribagh area last night.

The dead are Abdullah alias Noman, 35, national operations commander of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, and Kamal alias Hiran, 30, Dhaka regional commander of the outfit, said police.

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Hiran was an accused in a case filed over the killing of a police constable in an attack on a checkpoint in Ashulia in November last year, Sanwar Hossain, additional deputy commissioner (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star around 1:15am today.

He said a team of Detective Branch (DB) of police raided a house at Kamrangirchar and arrested three militants around 10:30pm.

Acting on the information of the arrestees, DB police conducted a drive near ZH Sikder Women's Medical College around 11:30pm.

As they were carrying out a search, militants on two motorbikes threw handmade grenades at the DB team, prompting the detectives to open fire.

Two of the militants were wounded, and two more fled the scene on a bike, said Sanwar.

The injured were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where doctors pronounced them dead around 12:45am.

Police said they recovered two firearms, a motorbike, and shards of grenades.

Sanwar claimed the militants went to Hazaribagh to carry out a militant attack.

Hiran was one of the two JMB militants who slipped through police fingers during a raid on a JMB “bomb and ammunition factory” in the city's Mirpur on December 25 last year, according to DB police sources.