At least 30 members of banned militant outfits have so far been killed in law enforcement agencies' joint operations after the government announced zero tolerance for terrorism. So far, about 250 people believed to be linked to militant networks were also arrested.
A senior police official told the Daily Observer on Friday that the suspected mastermind of the Gulshan café attack, Tamim Chowdhury, was killed in a raid in Narayanganj after the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan and Sholakia Eidgah attacks.
After the Gulshan café attack, people were heard saying that there would be no peace in the country. They feared more such attacks. Fortunately, after the Sholakia Eidgah attack, this fear among the common people was gone, at least to some extent.
The concept of militancy in the country changed suddenly with the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan on July 1. The terrorists killed 20 hostages-nine Italians, seven Japanese, an Indian and three Bangladeshis. Two police officers also died trying to flush out the terrorists.
The attack made people believe that some elements in the country have links with the IS, and that educated modern young men are getting involved in militancy. 'Operation Thunderbolt', a combined drive by the military and joint forces, killed all six attackers.
Nine militants were killed and another was detained with bullet injuries, as security forces overnight raided a terrorist hideout at a multi-storied residential building at Kalyanpur in the capital. The Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) force, along with members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Detective Branch of the police and fire service men, took part in the operation.
The police blame homegrown militants from groups like Jamaat-ul-Mujahedeen and the Ansarullah Bangla Team. At least 11 people suspected of being militants have been killed in shootouts since November, including five this month, as the authorities step up a hunt for Islamists to stop deadly attacks.
The first JMB militant Rakib Hasan Russell, who was recaptured five hours after he was snatched along with two other JMB convicts from police custody in Mymensingh yesterday, was killed in a 'shootout' with police at Mirzapur in Tangail in 2014.
The suspected Islamist militant Ghulam Faijullaha Fahim, 19, was shot when police officers took him with them to help capture his associates in Madaripur. He was killed just days after he was accused of critically wounding a Hindu college teacher in the latest in a series of attacks in the country.
Al Bani, 38, alias Hujja, alias Member Bhai, alias Shahadat, alias Mahfuz, was directly involved in the incident of Hussaini Dalan explosion which took place on October 24 in the city that left a teenage boy killed and scores of others injured. Mahfuz, himself, exploded the bombs, police said. He was also involved in the attack on police and bank robbery in Ashulia, he said.
Five more arrested JMB men were - Chand Mia, Omar Faruk alias Manik, Shahjalal, Ahsanullah Mahmud.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police said JMB suspect Hiron, who was killed along with another suspected militant leader Noman in a gunfight with detectives in the city's Hazaribagh was directly involved in police killings of Gabtoli and Ashulia.
Noman was Dhaka northern region operational commander of the banned group blamed for several attacks on minority groups including Shia and Ahmadiya communities. Three suspected Jama'at ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) members, who died in separate 'encounters', were directly involved in staging militant attacks, police have said.
One of them took part in the killing of Rajshahi University Prof AFM Rezaul Karim Siddiquee, said a police officer. They died in so-called shootouts at Dhaka's Kalshi and Rajshahi's Godagarhi.
He said the two killed in Dhaka were Tarek Hasan Nilu aka 'Osman', 32, and Sultan Mahmud aka 'Kamal' aka 'Rana', 40.
Osman, who hailed from Joypurhat, was a high-ranking JMB leader, he said. He was part of the squad that hacked Prof Siddiquee to death besides being involved in the attack on an ISKCON temple at Dinajpur's Kaharole.
Kamal, who was from Dinajpur, was a mid-level leader of the banned militant outfit and was accused of murder in a Shia mosque in Bogra, he said. Two people were injured in the attack on the ISKCON temple in Dinajpur on December 10 last year.
DMP Additional Commissioner Monirul Islam said Osman was one of the two killers. "We had arrested another JMB activist earlier in this case. In his confessional statement, he said that he (Osman) had led the attack and hacked (Siddiquee) to death." He said police also had proof of Osman's direct involvement in the gun and bomb attack on the ISKCON temple in Dinajpur on December 10 last year.
About Sultan Mahmud aka Kamal aka Rana, who died in the Dhaka shootout, Islam said there was evidence of Kamal's direct involvement in the gun and bomb attack on a Shia mosque in Bogra.
DMP Deputy Commissioner (Media) Masudur Rahman said 'Shariful or Sharif, who had used several other names previously like Sakib alias Saleh alias Arif alias Hadi, was killed in police gunfight. He is suspected of killing a number of people, including writers, bloggers, online activists, foreigners and members of different religious minorities in the country last year.
The officer said Sharif was wanted for the murder of Bangladesh-born American science writer and blogger Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death by several men as he returned from a Dhaka book fair in February last year.
The militant was also believed to have been directly involved in the subsequent killing of another blogger Niladri.
Police in Bogra say another suspect of last year's attack on a Shia mosque has died in what is being described as a 'shootout'. The dead, identified as Md Kausar, 25, was an operative of the banned outfit Jama'at ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), security officials claimed.
Khalid Hasan alias Badar Mama was involved in a bid to abduct Italian priest Piero Parolari last year. A commander of the outlawed militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), who was involved in an attack on a temple and a bid to kill an Italian priest last year was shot dead along with his aide during a raid on their hideout.
Khalid Hasan alias Badar Mama, 30, of Chapainawabganj was JMB's northern region military wing commander. The other was identified as Ripon, 25, of Rajshahi. The gunfight broke out between the police and militants after police raided the area following a tip-off.
Law enforcers arrested about 1,500 suspects. Some 747 members of the JMB were also arrested of whom 50 were the party's policymakers, 130 ehsar (full-time) members, 30 general members and 25 suicide squad members after the running part came in power.
