Roundup: Key trainer behind two major Bangladesh terror attacks killed in police raid

A most wanted militant was killed as Bangladesh law enforcers on Friday night conducted a raid on a hideout of banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in capital Dhaka.

After police busted the militant hideout, Monirul Islam, counterterrorism unit chief of Bangladesh Police, told journalists that "key JMB trainer Jahangir Alam Murad was killed."

"Murad was on the lawenforcers' most wanted list and he is considered to be a key JMB man," he said.

"He trained the attackers of Dhaka's Spanish cafe and Muslims' Eid venue."

Islam said Murad managed to flee a raid last week in which Tamim Chowdhury, the suspected mastermind of July 1 deadly Dhaka cafe attack, was killed.

Murad was Chowdhury's "second-in-command", he added.

Islam said Murad was the key JMB military trainer.

According to the official, he was known as "Major Murad in JMB".

"Murad died after being hit by bullets during a scuffle that ensued when he tried to flee the police raid," another police official said, adding he stabbed policemen during the scuffling.

According to the official, at least four people including three police officers were injured going to stop him from fleeing.

Policemen cordoned off a building in Dhaka's downtown Rupnagar area at about 9:30 p.m. local time on receipt of information that the militant was hiding there.

In the wake of the two major terror attacks that occurred here, including the July 1 siege staged by militants in advance of the attack, Bangladeshi law enforcers strengthened anti-militant drives recently.

Nine suspected militants were killed as Bangladesh law enforcers later July conducted a raid on a hideout of banned Islamist outfit JMB in capital Dhaka.

JMB carried out a series of bombing attacks in 63 out of the country's 64 districts, including capital Dhaka on Aug. 17, 2005, leaving two people dead and 150 others injured.

Hundreds of JMB leaders and activists were rounded up while six top leaders of the group, including Shaikh Abdur Rahman, were hanged in 2007.

Before the wounds of the July 1 deadly terror attack at a Spanish restaurant in Dhaka, that left 22 people, including 18 foreigners and two police officers dead, had even begun to heal, Bangladesh suffered a fresh blow on July 7 when terrorists attacked Muslims' Eid prayers.

At least four people were killed, including two police officers and one of the attackers, after several explosions and gunfire took place at the entrance of the country's largest Sholakia Eid prayer venue in Kishoreganj district, some 117 km northeast of Dhaka, on the morning of July 7.

Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, the Bangladeshi-origin Canadian citizen, and a former army major Zia Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque relortedly were behind many major attacks including that on Holey Artisan Bakery in the elite Gulshan.

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