Bangladesh forces kill suspected militant carrying explosives

DHAKA—A suspected militant was shot dead Saturday by security forces when he tried to cross a checkpoint run by Bangladesh’s elite Rapid Action Battalion in Dhaka, a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a RAB camp here.

“The motorbike rider carrying a bag (of explosives) tried to cross the checkpost at Khilgaon (area) defying signals, forcing our men to fire gunshots that killed him instantly,” a RAB official told PTI.

RAB operations officer ASM Shakhawat Hossain said two personnel of the force at the checkpoint were injured.

He said the bomb disposal experts found explosives in the bag carried by the suspected militant. An investigation was launched into the incident, he said.

The incident came a day after an Islamic State (IS) suicide bomber blew himself up inside a camp of RAB near the Dhaka international airport Friday.

The blast wounded two RAB men who were taken to the nearby Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka Cantonment for treatment.

It was the first attack the IS had claimed in Bangladesh this year and the 27th since September 2015.

Authorities issued a nationwide alert for all international and domestic airports and prisons in the country and ordered to step up security after Friday’s attack.

Bangladesh, however, ruled out the IS claim, calling it an act by homegrown militants, reiterating that there was no presence of any foreign terrorist group in the country.

Security experts suspected the banned Neo-JMB, an outfit inclined to IS, to be behind the subsequent attacks in Dhaka in the past two days after four suspected operatives of the group were killed in encounters near the port city of Chittagong.

Bangladesh has witnessed a nationwide anti-Islamist crackdown since last week while police said they arrested more than 80 militants.