Security forces have killed at least four militants, including a woman, who were holed up in a residential building in Bangladesh's Sylhet city, a military spokesperson said on Monday.
Brigadier General Fakhrul Ahsan, a spokesperson of the operation, told journalists at a press briefing that they found four bodies inside the building.
We’ve recovered two bodies and are contemplating options to recover the two other bodies with suicidal vests.Brigadier General Fakhrul Ahsan, Spokesperson, Bangladesh Army
A huge cache of explosives has been found scattered inside the building, Ahsan said, adding that a portion of the building may collapse if they explode. "So we need to move very carefully," he added.
But he said the multi-storeyed building, 'Atia Mahal', where the terrorists were holed up was now under their control.
"Three of the militants killed were men and one a woman," he added. The identity of the killed militants was not immediately known. He said the "Operation Twilight" that began on Friday will continue.
With the recovery of bodies of the four militants from the hideout, the death toll in the operation stood at 10, as six persons, including two policemen, were killed and dozens of others injured in two explosions on Saturday near the hideout.
On Friday, Sylhet police and personnel from police's counter-terrorism unit cordoned off a housing complex at Shibbari neighbourhood, some 240 km from the country’s capital Dhaka.
Bangladesh Army Para-Commando Battalion took charge of the operation from the police on Saturday and began the assault on the complex housing a five-storey and a four-storey building.
Govt in Denial of ISIS Link
Hours later, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack through its propaganda news agency 'Amaq'.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, however, rejected the involvement of ISIS, saying that there was no presence of any foreign terrorist group in the country.
The officials said they were not sure about the number of militants inside the building, but hinted that a top militant leader was inside the complex.
The same Bangladeshi commandos stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on 2 July last year.
In the wake of the Dhaka cafe attack, Bangladesh has conducted a series of large-scale operations against militants.
Bangladeshi police have hunted down and killed scores of militants allegedly linked to the terror attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery, in which 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, were killed.
Neo-JMB (an offshoot of the banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh) was blamed for the attack..
(With IANS, PTI inputs.)
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