Police conducted a drive at two houses at Harishpur in Natore town on Thursday suspecting those to be militant hideouts, but found nothing.

Additional Superintendent of Police (Sadar Circle) Abul Hasnat said no militant or explosive was found in the two houses during the drive, reports UNB.

Tipped off, a team of Natore and Bogra police jointly cordoned off a three-storey building, ‘Nasrin Garden’, owned by retired joint secretary Amzad Hossain, and another house owned by Abdul Hye Molla near District Police Lines around 9:00am, said Mizanur Rahman, an inspector of Bogra DB police.

Locals said Arif Hossain, a medical representative, rented the ground floor of the three-storey Nargis Garden but they were not sure who were residing in the flat.

Meanwhile, police requested the house inmates to come out but to no avail.

Later, police entered the ground floor of the building around 1:15pm but found neither any militant nor any explosive.

Meanwhile, police arrested a warranted criminal named Kismat from the house, said the ASP.

The law enforcers stormed the 2nd house around 1:45pm but found it empty, he said.

Police announced the end of the drive around 2:00pm.

Earlier, in the day, five suspected militants, including a woman, and a firefighter were killed in ‘suicide blasts’ and gunshots fired by ‘militants’ as law enforcers raided a suspected militant hideout at Matikata in Godagari upazila of Rajshahi district.