 A suspected Islamic militant and three others have been killed in a bomb blast in eastern Bangladesh after security forces besieged a house, officials say. Officials of the elite Rapid Action Battalion say a senior member of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen group died in the blast in the town of Comilla. The deaths follow the recent arrests of the group's chief, Abdur Rahman and his deputy Siddiqul Islam or Bangla Bhai. The militant group has been demanding the introduction of Sharia law.
| So at least one of them has been singing. |
Reports say some 300 Rapid Action Battalion personnel surrounded a house in Comilla, some 88km (55 miles) east of the capital, Dhaka. The house was believed to be the hideout of Jamaat-ul Mujahideen member, Mollah Omar. A woman and two children were also killed in the blast. It is not clear if Mollah Omar set off the blast himself.
| Nor will it be clear tomorrow, nor does it need to be. |
Last week, Siddiqul Islam, alias Bangla Bhai, was captured at his hideout in Mymensingh district. Days earlier, JMB leader Abdur Rahman surrendered to police in north-eastern Sylhet district. In February, a Bangladeshi court sentenced the two men - and two others also accused of Islamic militancy - to 40 years in prison in absentia for a bomb attack that killed two judges last year. |