Dhaka Police Engage in Shootout With Islamic State Terrorists

Police launched a security raid targeting Islamic terrorists Tuesday, July 26th in Kalyanpur, a neighborhood in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Security officials in Dhaka believed the building was harboring individuals who planned to commit a major attack on civilians. Later on, Dhaka city police chief said police questioned the owner of the building, where the security teams were able to seize weapons, large quantities of explosive gel, and two black flags.

Security forces stated that an armed group opened fire on officers as they attempted to enter the building, using firearms and detonating handmade explosives.

During the firefight, the jihadists were reported to have began shouting “Allahu Akbar,” meaning “god is greater” a common jihadist battle-cry. The fighters were also quoted to have been wearing “black outfits, turbans, and had backpacks…,” attire eerily similar to that worn by terrorists that killed 22 civilians and tourists in a café early in July.

Nine terrorists from the Jamaat Mujahideen Bangladesh group (JMB), all of which were between the ages of 20 and 25, were cited to be involved in the attack. In their efforts to clear the five-story building, the police did manage to detain one gunman after wounding him, while a second jihadist was able to successfully flee the scene. The detained terrorist was later identified as Raqibul Hasan. Police noted that Hasan had been in the process of preparing for medical entrance exams in the northern district of Bogra, not far from the homes of two of the five café attacks in July.

The JMB has been long known in Bangladesh as a terror group since their origins in the late 1990s. Their ties in the recent attack on the café in Dhaka and their desire to construct an Islamic state in Bangladesh have made them an enemy of the government, especially considering their frequent building of training camps for terrorist cells.

Recently, the group and many of its members have pledged allegiance to Islamic State, which has raised security concerns among the Bangladesh community.

Bangladesh security forces have noted that all of the participants in the shoot-out were well educated citizens from wealthy families. This certainly contradicts theories that have attempted to relate support for jihad with socio-economic inequality.

Often, there is a false connotation that those that join Islamic State are poor, disillusioned, and uneducated; yet, the repeated attacks in Bangladesh show that both the perpetrators and those who coordinate attacks have been middle to upper class intellectuals.

The ongoing coordinated assault on Bangladesh exemplifies the expansive nature of Islamic State, their ability to co-opt preexisting jihadist networks, and their ultimate goal of instituting a global caliphate, despite territorial setbacks elsewhere around the globe.