BANGLADESH: Bangladesh Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel detain a suspected Islamist extremist after he surrendered in Ashulia, some 25 kms from Dhaka. —AFP

DHAKA: Four suspected Islamist extremists surrendered yesterday after a night-long standoff with Bangladeshi police in which they detonated explosives and opened fire outside the capital Dhaka, an official said.

Police said the armed militants belonged to a new faction of Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an outlawed group blamed for a wave of attacks including the murder of 18 foreigners at a cafe in Dhaka last July. Acting on a tip-off Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion surrounded a building in the garment district of Ashulia, around 25 kilometers west of Dhaka, just after midnight, RAB spokesman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan said. “They rented the house posing as garment workers two months ago. When we raided the place, they fired back with live rounds and exploded IED (improvised explosive devices),” he said. No casualties were reported.