Suspected extremists kill Bangladesh police officer’s wife

Chittagong / AFP

Suspected militants killed the wife of a senior anti-terror officer in the Bangladesh city of Chittagong on Sunday, the latest attack thought carried out by local extremists, police said.
Three unidentified men stabbed and then shot Mahmuda Begum in the head as she walked her son to a school bus stop near her home, Chittagong Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner Moktar Hossain said.
Begum was the wife of Babul Akter who has led several high-profile operations against the banned Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militant group in the southeastern city in recent months.
“The attackers came on a motor-cycle. Her son said she was stabbed first. Then they pointed a pistol near her ear and shot several times,” Hossain said.
“We suspect JMB or local Islamist extremists for the attack. Akter led successful anti-militant raids in Chittagong in which several JMB men were arrested,” he said.
Akter, who was recently posted to the police headquarters in Dhaka, has received threats and he was asked to step up his personal security.
In October last year, Akter and his team arrested top JMB militant Mohammad Javed along with four others and seized a huge cache of explosives from their hideout, according to police.