Bangladesh police to decide on handling of unclaimed militants' bodies

As relatives were reluctant to receive bodies of 19 slain militants, police in Bangladesh capital said on Monday what to do with the bodies will be decided after test reports.

Masudur Rahman, a Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman, told reporters that decision on the bodies of 19 militants killed in Dhaka's July 1 cafe attack and subsequent police raids will be finalized after receiving reports of various tests carried out on them.

Six militants were killed in the cafe attack, nine killed in Dhaka's Kalyanpur raid, three, including Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, one of the masterminds of the Spanish cafe attack, in Narayanganj on the outskirts of the capital city and one in Dhaka's Mirpur area.

Rahman said relevant authorities will decide whether the bodies would be handed over to their families or Anjuman, an organization well-known in Bangladesh for its burial service.

The families are yet to claim the bodies, reportedly kept at hospital's morgues, he said.

According to the sources, though the identities of the most of the slain militants have been confirmed through DNA test, none of their families are willing to receive their bodies for burial.

Weeks after July 1 Spanish cafe attack, nine suspected militants were killed as Bangladesh law enforcers conducted a raid on a hideout of banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Nine Italians, seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis, an Indian and a Bangladeshi-born American were among the 22 people killed by the attackers on July 1. Endit