Bangladesh police shot and killed a suspected militant who tried to enter a security checkpoint on a motorcycle armed with explosives on Saturday, the latest in a string of security incidents since a deadly attack on a cafe in July.

The latest incident came a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a security forces base near the international airport in the South Asian nation&#39;s capital, Dhaka.

Bangladesh&#39;s counter-terrorism Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said some of its officers opened fire when a man riding a motorcycle tried to break through a checkpoint.

&quot;The man was carrying explosives on his body,&quot; the RAB&#39;s Legal and Media wing chief Mufti Mahmud Khan told Reuters. He said two officers were wounded in the attack.

Bangladesh has stepped up security at all airports and prisons across the country after Friday&#39;s suicide attack. The most serious in a string of attacks in recent years came last July&nbsp;when gunmen stormed a Dhaka cafe and killed 22 people, most of them foreigners.

On Thursday, four suspected members of an Islamist militant group blamed for the cafe attack were killed during a police raid on their hideout in the southeastern town of Chittagong.

Al Qaeda and the Islamic State militant group have made competing claims over a recent spate of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in Bangladesh, a mostly Muslim country of 160 million people.

Authorities have consistently ruled out the presence of such transnational groups, blaming domestic militants instead. However, security experts say the scale and sophistication of the cafe attack suggested links to a transnational network.

Police have killed more than 50 suspected militants in shootouts since the cafe attack, including the man they say, was its main planner, Bangladesh-born Canadian citizen Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury.

(Reuters)

The suspected militant was shot dead after he tried to enter a security check post on a motorcycle armed with explosives

Bangladesh police shot and killed a suspected militant who tried to enter a security checkpoint on a motorcycle armed with explosives on Saturday, the latest in a string of security incidents since a deadly attack on a cafe in July. The latest incident came a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a security forces base near the international airport in the South Asian nation's capital, Dhaka. Bangladesh's counter-terrorism Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said some of its officers opened fire when a man riding a motorcycle tried to break through a checkpoint. "The man was carrying explosives on his body," the RAB's Legal and Media wing chief Mufti Mahmud Khan told Reuters. He said two officers were wounded in the attack. Bangladesh has stepped up security at all airports and prisons across the country after Friday's suicide attack. The most serious in a string of attacks in recent years came last July when gunmen stormed a Dhaka cafe and killed 22 people, most of them foreigners. On Thursday, four suspected members of an Islamist militant group blamed for the cafe attack were killed during a police raid on their hideout in the southeastern town of Chittagong. Al Qaeda and the Islamic State militant group have made competing claims over a recent spate of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in Bangladesh, a mostly Muslim country of 160 million people. Authorities have consistently ruled out the presence of such transnational groups, blaming domestic militants instead. However, security experts say the scale and sophistication of the cafe attack suggested links to a transnational network. Police have killed more than 50 suspected militants in shootouts since the cafe attack, including the man they say, was its main planner, Bangladesh-born Canadian citizen Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury. (Reuters)

Bangladesh police shoot suspected militant armed with explosives

Five people believed to be members of outlawed Islamist group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB), who were arrested on Tuesday, were planning to carry out attacks on New Year&#39;s Eve in Dhaka, Bangaldesh police&#39;s counter-terrorism unit said.

Police found 30 kilograms of explosives when they raided an apartment in capital Dhaka&#39;s Darus Salam.

&ldquo;In primary interrogation, the militants told us that they had planned to carry out attacks on the 31st night, during New Year celebrations,&rdquo; Dhaka Tribune reported&nbsp;counter-terrorism unit chief Monirul Islam as saying.

The Bangladesh security has been on its toes ever since five militants stormed an upscale bakery in Gulshan Thana on July 1, 2016, killing 29 people including 20 hostages.

(WION)

Police say they recovered 30 kilograms of explosives when they raided their Dhaka apartment

Five people believed to be members of outlawed Islamist group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB), who were arrested on Tuesday, were planning to carry out attacks on New Year's Eve in Dhaka, Bangaldesh police's counter-terrorism unit said. Police found 30 kilograms of explosives when they raided an apartment in capital Dhaka's Darus Salam. “In primary interrogation, the militants told us that they had planned to carry out attacks on the 31st night, during New Year celebrations,” Dhaka Tribune reported counter-terrorism unit chief Monirul Islam as saying. The Bangladesh security has been on its toes ever since five militants stormed an upscale bakery in Gulshan Thana on July 1, 2016, killing 29 people including 20 hostages. (WION)

Bangladesh: 5 'Islamist group' men planned Dec 31 attacks

Bangladesh has been hit by a surge in Islamist attacks in the past three years that reached new heights last weekend when 20 hostages were murdered in Dhaka. 
 
The wave of attacks has been notably brutal with many of the victims, including the hostages, hacked to death with machetes. 
 
One week on from the end of the siege at an upmarket cafe in the capital, AFP looks at some of the factors that might be responsible for fuelling the attacks and at how the government is reacting: 
 
Bangladesh has been blighted by unrest since it broke from Pakistan in a war of independence in 1971 and has witnessed more than a dozen coups. 
 
Islamist groups such as Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and the newer Ansarullah Bangla Team have long posed a challenge to authorities, with the JMB killing at least 28 people in a bombing campaign in 2005. 
 
The group, blamed by the government for the Dhaka siege, was banned after the 2005 attacks and is seen as a largely spent force following the subsequent arrest and execution of its leaders. 
 
While the 2005 attacks were largely indiscriminate, the recent killings have had specific targets, including secular bloggers and gay activists. 
 
Members of minority groups such as Hindus, Christians and Sufi Muslims have also been victims, with many of them hacked to death. 
 
Although a handful of foreigners had previously been killed, last weekend&#39;s siege was by far the deadliest attack. 
 
The victims included nine Italians and seven Japanese. Experts point to several factors behind the recent violence, including the execution of top Islamists over their role in the independence war. 
 
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in 2013 to protest at the guilty verdicts handed down by a domestic tribunal that critics say was intent on neutering opposition to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 
 
The Supreme Court then barred the biggest Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami from contesting the 2014 general election, disenfranchising millions of supporters. 
 
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, allied to Jamaat, subsequently boycotted the polls. What was then effectively a one-horse race was held against the backdrop of firebombings across the country. 
 
Many observers say the lack of genuine democracy has made Bangladesh a fertile ground for extremists. 
 
&quot;There is a lot of support for the organisations (Hasina) is trying to quash,&quot; said C. Christine Fair, associate professor at Georgetown University in Washington and South Asia expert. 
 
&quot;The country is torn. She is essentially silencing, politically, half the country. &quot;Both the Islamic State (IS) organisation and the competing Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) have claimed many of the attacks. 
 
However, the government insists international jihadist networks have not got a foothold in Bangladesh and that local extremists are culpable. 
 
There is little evidence that IS trains and funds attackers in the country, although it has recruited Bangladeshis to fight in Syria.&nbsp; 
 
More likely, analysts say, is that radicalised youths are being inspired by the group and pledge allegiance -- a murky line in the age of social media. 
 
During the cafe siege, IS was sent gruesome pictures of the carnage by the attackers, which it immediately distributed via its affiliate news agency Amaq. 
 
Al-Qaeda may have more of a claim of presence in Bangladesh, with Bangladeshi fighters aiding the anti-Soviet mujahedeen in Afghanistan as far back as the 1980s. 
 
&quot;The ties to AQIS are much more credible. South Asia is Al-Qaeda territory,&quot; said Fair. The use of machetes has become a chilling hallmark of the murders and nearly all the slain hostages were attacked with sharp blades, even though their killers had automatic weapons. 
 
Some experts say a lack of access to suicide vests or car bombs explains the prevalence of machete attacks, but others see a more deliberate reason behind the brutal killing style. 
 
&quot;They wanted to show the world that they can go to any extent for jihad,&quot; said K G Suresh of New Delhi&#39;s Vivekananda International Foundation think-tank. Bangladesh is intensely politically polarised, characterised by a poisonous rivalry between Hasina and the main opposition leader Khaleda Zia that stretches back decades. 
 
Although around 90 per cent of Bangladesh&#39;s 160 million-strong population is Muslim, mostly Sunni, the nation is officially secular. 
 
Creeping popular support for fundamentalism has led to mounting calls for Islamist representation in government and public life.&nbsp; 
 
One recent study found around 47 per cent of Bangladeshis say suicide bombing is justifiable to defend Islam, higher than other Muslim-majority nation in South and Southeast Asia. 
 
(AFP)

12 hours, six terrorists and 29 dead, the Dhaka siege was one of the deadliest in a spate of violence that Bangladesh has been witnessing

Bangladesh has been hit by a surge in Islamist attacks in the past three years that reached new heights last weekend when 20 hostages were murdered in Dhaka. The wave of attacks has been notably brutal with many of the victims, including the hostages, hacked to death with machetes. One week on from the end of the siege at an upmarket cafe in the capital, AFP looks at some of the factors that might be responsible for fuelling the attacks and at how the government is reacting: Bangladesh has been blighted by unrest since it broke from Pakistan in a war of independence in 1971 and has witnessed more than a dozen coups. Islamist groups such as Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and the newer Ansarullah Bangla Team have long posed a challenge to authorities, with the JMB killing at least 28 people in a bombing campaign in 2005. The group, blamed by the government for the Dhaka siege, was banned after the 2005 attacks and is seen as a largely spent force following the subsequent arrest and execution of its leaders. While the 2005 attacks were largely indiscriminate, the recent killings have had specific targets, including secular bloggers and gay activists. Members of minority groups such as Hindus, Christians and Sufi Muslims have also been victims, with many of them hacked to death. Although a handful of foreigners had previously been killed, last weekend's siege was by far the deadliest attack. The victims included nine Italians and seven Japanese. Experts point to several factors behind the recent violence, including the execution of top Islamists over their role in the independence war. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in 2013 to protest at the guilty verdicts handed down by a domestic tribunal that critics say was intent on neutering opposition to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The Supreme Court then barred the biggest Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami from contesting the 2014 general election, disenfranchising millions of supporters. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, allied to Jamaat, subsequently boycotted the polls. What was then effectively a one-horse race was held against the backdrop of firebombings across the country. Many observers say the lack of genuine democracy has made Bangladesh a fertile ground for extremists. "There is a lot of support for the organisations (Hasina) is trying to quash," said C. Christine Fair, associate professor at Georgetown University in Washington and South Asia expert. "The country is torn. She is essentially silencing, politically, half the country. "Both the Islamic State (IS) organisation and the competing Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) have claimed many of the attacks. However, the government insists international jihadist networks have not got a foothold in Bangladesh and that local extremists are culpable. There is little evidence that IS trains and funds attackers in the country, although it has recruited Bangladeshis to fight in Syria. More likely, analysts say, is that radicalised youths are being inspired by the group and pledge allegiance -- a murky line in the age of social media. During the cafe siege, IS was sent gruesome pictures of the carnage by the attackers, which it immediately distributed via its affiliate news agency Amaq. Al-Qaeda may have more of a claim of presence in Bangladesh, with Bangladeshi fighters aiding the anti-Soviet mujahedeen in Afghanistan as far back as the 1980s. "The ties to AQIS are much more credible. South Asia is Al-Qaeda territory," said Fair. The use of machetes has become a chilling hallmark of the murders and nearly all the slain hostages were attacked with sharp blades, even though their killers had automatic weapons. Some experts say a lack of access to suicide vests or car bombs explains the prevalence of machete attacks, but others see a more deliberate reason behind the brutal killing style. "They wanted to show the world that they can go to any extent for jihad," said K G Suresh of New Delhi's Vivekananda International Foundation think-tank. Bangladesh is intensely politically polarised, characterised by a poisonous rivalry between Hasina and the main opposition leader Khaleda Zia that stretches back decades. Although around 90 per cent of Bangladesh's 160 million-strong population is Muslim, mostly Sunni, the nation is officially secular. Creeping popular support for fundamentalism has led to mounting calls for Islamist representation in government and public life. One recent study found around 47 per cent of Bangladeshis say suicide bombing is justifiable to defend Islam, higher than other Muslim-majority nation in South and Southeast Asia. (AFP)

Rising violence in Bangladesh: What's behind it?