Police in Bangladesh today said they suspected Islamist militants were linked to an abortive but deadly attempt to rob a bank on the outskirts of the capital, the motive being to create panic instead of robbery. "It was not aimed at robbery but something different. We don't think it was done for money," a senior police officer said two days after eight people, including an assailant, were killed as the attackers tried to loot a branch of the private Commerce Bank using guns and home-made grenades.
Deputy inspector general of police S M Mahfuzul Haque Nuruzzaman added the raid was rather aimed to "kill people to cause panic" with a particular motive as the robbers did not go to the vault "despite having time"."The so-called robbers only took Taka 687,000 from the cash counter. They did not go to the volt despite having time. They did not even took money from the clients," he said.