Officials of law enforcement agencies yesterday foiled a plot to attack people going to Dhanmondi 32 by conducting ‘Operation August Bite’ at a building in Panthapath in the capital, with a suspected militant being killed in the process. The suspect, identified as Saiful Islam, a student of Khulna BL College and a resident of Dumuria upazila of Khulna, allegedly committed suicide by blowing himself up during the raid on Room No. 301 on the fourth floor of Panthapath’s Olio Green Heaven Hotel in the morning.

The militant had planned to carry out a suicide attack on processions heading towards Bangabandhu’s residence at Dhanmondi Road 32 to pay homage to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on National Mourning Day on the eve of 15 August, claimed inspector-general of police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Haque.

Briefing reporters in the wake of the incident, he said the militant was an activist of Chhatra Shibir in his student life. Also, his father is an Imam of a mosque.

“If he was not involved with Jamaat-Shibir, he would not have been involved in such an incident on the day the country is mourning Bangabandhu’s killing on this day in 1975,” he observed.

Replying to a question, he said they would examine whether Saiful is a listed member of neo-JMB. He said the intelligence officers of the counter-terrorism unit came to know that militants would carry out suicide bomb attacks on the processions that would proceed towards Dhanmondi 32, Bangabandhu’s residence, and kill hundreds of people.

“Our counter-terrorism and police intelligence followed them and identified their hideout at Olio Hotel…On being informed about their presence, police conducted a search operation and confined the militant,” he said.

The IGP said the police were compelled to carry out an operation as the militant did not respond to their repeated calls to surrender.

When the police started their operation, the militant exploded a bomb that smashed the door of the room. The police fired at him when he burst another bomb. But then he blew himself up by igniting his suicide vest and backpack with improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The actual cause of Saiful’s death is being attributed to his exploding his suicide vest.

The bomb was very powerful and would have caused huge losses if exploded at a public gathering, he added.

Earlier in the day, police cordoned off a hotel in Panthapath area of Dhaka city. Members of the police and its special SWAT unit were deployed around the hotel and five other buildings there, said witnesses. A fire services unit was kept in readiness for a possible operation.

Blasts and gunshots were then heard from the scene when the wall of one of the floors of the building, which the police had cordoned off, collapsed in a major blast.

“The Almighty has saved us—it could be done because of the activities of the counter-terrorism intelligence unit. There was no casualty among the law enforcers during the operation though a policeman sustained splinter injuries,” he disclosed.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner Asaduzzaman Miah, Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit chief Monirul Islam and others were present during the press briefing.

Meanwhile, the officer-in-charge of Dumuria Police Station, Md Habil Hossain, said he has confirmed that Saiful is the son of Abul Khair of Noakathi village at Sahos Union under Dumuria upazila.

He disclosed that locals informed him that Abul Khair was involved in Jamaat politics and was the treasurer of the Sahos union unit of the organisation. Khair is the Imam of Noakathi Matherhat Jame Mosque, he said.

The OC said Saiful was a final year Honours student of Political Science at Government BL University College and was living at Navy Colony in Khulna. Earlier, he had studied in a madrasha, he said.

He said Saiful went to Dhaka on August 7 on work and last communicated with his family members on Sunday. He was supposed to return home on Monday.