DHAKA: Bangladesh on Saturday visibly wrapped up more than a week’s of bloody anti-Islamist security clampdown that saw 22 deaths, as police announced the end of the latest assault in northeastern Mounvilabazar killing three militants, one being a woman.

“We found three bodies including that of a woman as we entered their den today” at Moulvibazar’s Borohat area, police’s counter terrorism and transnational crimes (CTTC) unit chief Monirul Islam told newsmen at the end of the two-day “Operation Maximums” at the 2nd Islamist den in the northeastern town.

He added: “Our intension was to capture them alive and therefore we repeatedly called them to surrender but they defied … launched counter attacks throwing grenades and blasting bombs whenever we tried to approach them”.

Police’s elite Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) launched the second raid a day after wrapping up their “Operation Hit Back” at another den nearby when all eight of a militant family blew themselves up in a suicide blast amid the security siege.

The country in the past seven days witnessed four major anti-militancy assaults against Daesh inclined Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh when seven people including an army lieutenant colonel and two police inspectors lost their lives while the clampdown killed 15 militants and their minor children.

In all the hideouts, the militants visibly lived as ordinary talents, while residents in the neighbourhood said they had little idea about their identities as they tried to evade interactions with neighbours.

The first security assault was launched in northeastern Sylhet on March 22 where army commandos took the lead and killed four Islamists including Neo-JMB chief Musa during a five-day security siege which military called “Operation Twilight”.

As the siege in Sylhet was underway fellow militants from outside launched two retaliatory clandestine attacks, killing six people including the two policemen instantly and wounding 50 others near the scene.

The army officer, serving the intelligence wing chief of elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), succumbed to his wounds two days ago.

A day after the end of the Operation Twilight, police simultaneously raided three other neo-JMB hideouts, two being in neighbouring Moulvibazar and one in central Comilla district.

Police’s Operation Hit Back saw two militant couples blowing themselves up along with four minor children, staging a suicide blast at their den on the outskirts of Moulvibazar town.

Police said the suicide blast was so severe that it tore into pieces the dead, making it difficult to ascertain exactly how many people were inside.

“The forensic examinations could confirm the exact casualty figure (though) we assume they are seven or eight in number,” Islam said at that time.

In Comilla, after three days of security siege, police found the den to be a big cache of explosives stored by the militants but none was found there to be encountered as Islamists visibly managed the scene ahead of the clampdown. Neo-JMB is said to have carried out the deadly July 1, 2016 attack on a Dhaka cafe leaving 22 dead, 17 being foreigners with Daesh claiming the responsibility.

Since 2013, Bangladesh witnesses a spate of Islamist attacks on foreigners, liberals and members of religious minorities with Daesh and Al Qaida have made competing claims.

The government, however, consistently rejected the claims, ruling out the presence of foreign terrorist groups in Bangladesh, attributing the militant assaults to home grown outfits like Neo-JMB or Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), said to be ideologically inclined to Al Qaida.