Afif Kaderi, a 14-year-old weapons' expert and trainer for women militants, preferred to die instead of giving himself up during an overnight raid by law enforcers on the militants' den in the capital's Ashkona area of Dakkhin Khan on Saturday.
The raid from Saturday midnight to early Sunday left two militants killed, including one woman, wounded a 4-year old girl (daughter of a woman militant) and forced four others including two women to surrender in what was the most dramatic and breathtaking anti-terror hunt in recent years.
Afif excelled in weapons making and training and was engaged in teaching the women militants the skills of militancy such as using guns and throwing grenades during battles with law enforcers.
Abedatul Arfin alias Khadiza is wife of Tanvir Kaderi, himself a militantnow languishing in jail.
As such, Afif was a born militant and showed his guts even in death by refusing to surrender. He was killed by multiple bullets fired by police, the boy's autopsy at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) confirmed.
The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit source told The Daily Observer, as a teenager Afif could easily reach the women and convince them to learn tactics of using guns and explosives. Afif Kaderi learned the tactics from his father Tanvir Kaderi, a Neo JMB leader, who committed suicide during the September 10 raid on a militant hideout in Azimpur in Dhaka.
"Afif Kaderi was an expert in making explosives," according to Khadiza's statement to an official of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the DMP during interrogation.
Police found huge evidence that the ground floor flat at the four-storey Ashkona building was used both as the militant's shelter and Neo JMB's office.
The Crime Scene unit of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Monday handed over the evidence to the investigation officer (IO) of a case filed in connection with Saturday's raid at a militant hideout in Ashkona.
Absus Salam, assistant superintendent of police of CID's Crime Scene unit, told this correspondent that the CID team collected evidence from the ground floor of the three-storey building where two militants were killed in separate blasts,
"We have found adequate evidence that the place was used as militant hideout shelters home and sometimes they used it as their office," the CID official said.
They also collected the remains of burnt notes worth Tk 12 lakh, two laptops, several mobile phones and documents as evidence and handed over to the IO. Earlier they recovered 19 grenades and several weapons from the hideout.
Sheikh Rokonuzzaman, Inspector of, Dakkhin Khan Police Station and IO of the case said "We have received the evidence from the CID," The evidence will be handed over CTTC unit on Monday, he said.
Afif Kaderi suffered multiple bullet wounds, autopsy found. "One bullet has been taken out of his body," Sohel Mahmud, assistant professor of forensic medicine department at Dhaka Medical College, told reporters after conducting autopsy.
A suspected female militant, Shakira, died in a blast after she detonated her suicide vest during the raid in Ashkona.
Police fired shots and gas grenades as Afif did not surrender. Officials said Afif might have been killed in police firing around 2:30pm Saturday. Besides, two women -- wife of Major (retd) Jahid, and wife of "Neo JMB" leader Maynul Musa - surrendered during the drive with two babies.
Musa, sought by law enforcers, escaped police dragnet but he instructed his wife Trisha Moni to wear a suicide vest and blow up herself along with their four-month-old daughter instead of surrendering to law enforcers.
Trisha, however, did not carry out the instruction as her motherly love for the baby stopped her from detonating the vest.
The CTTC unit has filed a case against eight suspected militants over Saturday's anti-militancy raid at Dhaka's Ashkona. "CTTC Sub-Inspector Shahinur Islam filed the case on Sunday night," Dakkhin Khan police OC Tapan Chandra Saha said on Monday.
The condition of Sabina, the four-year-old girl who suffered injuries in the Ashkona suicide blast, has improved. Dr Ashrafuddin Khan says she appears calm and seems to be searching for someone familiar but is not uttering a word.
"Sabina's condition has been improving gradually since the surgery," the DMCH causality department doctor said.
Sabina is daughter of one Iqbal, who died of cancer, and militant Shakira, who blew herself up during the Ashkona raid on Saturday.
