DHAKA, March 24 (Xinhua) -- A team of Bangladesh police Friday cordoned off a building in the country's Sylhet city, some 241 km northeast of capital Dhaka, suspecting presence of militants there.
A police official told Xinhua that the law enforcers had surrounded the five-storied building since the hours of Thursday.
Several gunshots and explosions were heard from the spot. Law enforcers are seen to retaliate after a grenade was hurled towards them from the house.
Jedan Al Musa, a senior Sylhet police official, said the militants rented the ground floor flat of the building "Achia Villa" three months ago.
"A man and a woman identified themselves as husband and wife and rented the ground floor flat three months ago".
He said residents from adjacent houses have been moved to safety.
Law enforcers from capital Dhaka have already reached the scene to boost local police efforts to catch them.
The raid came days after four suspected militants were killed as Bangladeshi law enforcers on Thursday stormed a militant hideout at Sitakunda on the outskirts of the country's seaport city Chittagong, some 242 km southeast of capital Dhaka. Since the cafe attack Bangladesh law enforcers apparently have gone tough against Neo-JMB (an offshoot of the banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh) which is blamed for July 1 last year attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter in which 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, were killed.
