DMP chief denies possibility of militant attack on Eid day

The chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police has claimed that there is no chance of a militant attack during the Eid-ul-Azha, though the militants have gained some strength lately.

During a press briefing on law and order ahead of the Eid festival on Tuesday, DMP Commissioner Md Shafiqul Islam said that the militants’ bomb-making capacity had increased slightly, reports Bangla Tribune.

“But the police are not sitting idle. Police are on alert. Recently we raided two separate militant dens. So there is no possibility of militant attacks during this Eid,” he said, adding that the bombs recovered recently were so powerful that explosions could cause massacres.

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Mentioning the arrest of three Bangladeshi top militants in India, he said: “We had information about them that they left the country to join Jihad. They have been arrested since we gave them [Indian authorities] the information on time.”

The last attack on Eid congregations took place in 2016, a week after the Holey Artisan Bakery massacre, by the Islamic State-inspired militants at Sholakia of Kishoreganj on July 7. 

Seven armed extremists attacked a police check-post to make their way into the main Eid congregation, resulting in an hour-long gunfight that left two police constables, one woman and an attacker dead.

Also Read - Sholakia attack: The last major terror incident in Bangladesh?

The DMP boss said that the police’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crimes, the Anti Terrorism Unit and Rapid Action Battalion were working alongside the detectives to dismantle the militant groups.

Asked about the reasons why people were falling prey to the militant recruiters, the DMP commissioner said that the people were spending a lot of time on social media due to the Covid lockdown.

“People are watching different propaganda materials of the militant groups and are getting trapped. We are monitoring these issues regularly and trying to keep things under control,” Commissioner Shafiqul added.