The police chief has said that they will intensify nationwide crackdown against militants this year in line with 'zero tolerance' policy against militancy.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque said this during an exclusive interview recently.
He said, "Police have achieved significant success in combating militancy with killing of 58 militants and capturing over 50 others while conducting operations at 26 militant hideouts across the country till January this year after the terror attack at Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1, 2016."
Three operatives of banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were killed during the latest drive in a militant hideout at Nakhalpara under Tejgaon Police Station early Friday.
A total of 13 more militants were killed in a series of anti-militant drives in the wake of Holey Artisan attack following which more than 200 others were arrested.
Besides, as many as 11 law-enforcement agency members were killed during the anti-militant drives.
Mr Hoque also claimed that extensive crackdown on the militants after attack on the Gulshan restaurant broke down backbones of the armed activists.
According to him, "Militants have lost their organisational capacity to carry out attacks on a large scale when security officials are detecting their locations and movements with intensified intelligence vigilance."
He added, "The activities of the militants have been brought almost under control as police have successfully stopped regrouping of the neo JMB with killing and capturing its top leaders."
Besides, JMB's over 60 operatives were sentenced to death, over 150 to life term imprisonment and around 250 others to different jail terms in cases of various attacks. Besides, law enforcers arrested 1,792 JMB men in different cases while 2,043 were charge-sheeted in different cases.
The banned militant outfit suffered a huge setback with execution of death sentences to its top leaders including Maulana Shaikh Abdur Rahman, his second-in-command Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, military commander Ataur Rahman Sunny, think-tank Abdul Awal, Majlish-e-Sura members Khaled Saifullah and Salahuddin.
RAB media wing director commander Mufti Mahmud earlier told BSS, "In a single incident of cross-country bomb explosions on August 17 in 2005, a total of 161 cases were lodged accusing 660 members of the JMB. Of them, 103 cases have already been disposed of while 58 cases are under trial."
Sources concerned say the courts awarded death sentences to 15 JMB men, life term to 118, different terms to 116 while acquitted 118 of the charges in the cross-country bomb explosions cases.
Of the death sentence awardees in the cross-country bombing cases, JMB chief Maulana Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Harkatul Jihad Al Islami Bangladesh operational chief Maulana Abdul Hannan deserve mention.