Lieutenant Colonel Hafizur Rahman, commander of RAB-7 Chattogram, told journalists that members of the Yasin Bahini had carried out a planned attack on the RAB camp. As the criminals opened fire targeting the camp, RAB members returned fire in self-defense.

He said the miscreants cut roads at different points so that additional law enforcement forces could not reach the scene. Despite this, law enforcement agencies reached the area and resisted the criminals. At one stage, some criminals fled the scene, while several others were detained.

A RAB official named Kamal Hossain uploaded several videos of the operation to his Facebook account. Two videos uploaded early Monday morning show roads in Jungle Salimpur being cut off. In the videos, Kamal Hossain is heard saying, “To prevent law enforcement agencies from entering, the criminals cut culverts and roads at different points here, so that our vehicles could not get inside. They thought their tactics would defeat us. But they failed to realise that we are even more strategic than they are.”

Because the roads had been dug up, members of law enforcement agencies had to leave their vehicles far away and proceed on foot to the Alinagar area of Jungle Salimpur.

RAB officials said the damaged roads delayed their arrival at the scene. They had to leave their vehicles where the roads had been cut and continue onward from there.