Bangladesh's army today cleared a booby-trapped militant den in Sylhet and carried out controlled explosions of bombs in the building, a day after all four Islamist terrorists holed up there were killed in one of the country's longest anti-terror operations.
Several powerful blasts rocked the area as army's bomb disposal experts engaged in defusing the explosives laid out at different corners of the building by the militants before their deaths.
"The army's explosive experts are working inside to defuse the devices apparently through controlled explosions," an eye witness said.
An army spokesman said their assaults inside the militant hideout killed all Islamists but the 'Operation Twilight' is still underway secure the site.
"They (troops) are using drones to get a clearer picture before stepping inside different corners of the building to evade booby traps," an official told PTI.
Sylhet-based 17 Infantry Division's Major General Anwarul Momen is leading the operation, assisted by police's SWAT and counter-terrorism units.
Heavily-armed commandos yesterday neutralised all four "well-trained" Islamist militants, including a woman, who were holed up in a building, during four days of siege that saw powerful blasts claimed by the Islamic State that killed six people in northeastern Sylhet city.
Army's Brigadier General Fakhrul Ahsan told the media briefing powerful "improvised explosive devices" laid by "much trained militants" at its different corners exposed the building to vulnerability requiring the military to exhaust a process ahead of wrapping up the operation.
"The militants had kept a bucket filled with explosives at the collapsible gate at entrance of the building. When we detonated them from distance, the collapsible gate was blown out so vigorously, walls of another building several yards away were severely damaged," Ahsan said.
He earlier also described the militants as "well trained" referring to an example when they hurled back a live grenade thrown by the commandos as the assault was underway.
The operation was launched after a suicide bomber on Friday night blew himself up at the international airport in Dhaka in an attack claimed by the ISIS. It came a week after an identical attack on a RAB camp in Dhaka.
Authorities called out commandos on Saturday morning, two days after a security siege to the building.
On Saturday evening, two powerful bombs ripped through a crowd near the building, killing six people, two being police officers and injuring about 50, including two army officers.
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Elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Intelligence Wing
chief Lt Col Abul Kalam was seriously wounded in blasts and flown to Dhaka for treatment. He was later flown to Singapore.
The attacks were carried out by the extremists from outside who were mixed up with onlookers, police said.
Hours later the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack through its propaganda news agency 'Amaq'.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, however, rejected the ISIS claim, saying that there was no presence of any foreign terrorist group in the country.
The encounter continued into Sunday, when army commandos shot dead two militants at the building.
The commandos located the militants wearing suicide vests on the ground floor of the building and shot them dead.
The militants were equipped with small arms, explosives and grenades and laid out booby traps at different corners of the building, slowing down the military operation.
The commandos earlier evacuated 78 residents, including children from the building.
A militant couple lived for the past three months as tenants.
Residents who lived in the house as tenants said they were virtually taken to hostage with militants warning them of bombs implanted on their way out while the commandos brought them out from the top of the building making their way there from the rooftop of an adjacent structure.
Bangladesh has been witnessing a spate of attacks on secular activists, foreigners and religious minorities since 2013. The country launched a massive crackdown on militants specially after the Dhaka cafe attack.
