Dhaka police kills three extremists
Bangladesh police stormed a militant hideout outside Dhaka yesterday, shooting dead three Islamist extremists, including the suspected mastermind of a cafe attack last month that killed 22 people.
"We can see three bodies here," senior police officer Sanwar Hossain told AFP.
"Tamim Chowdhury is dead. He is the Gulshan attack mastermind and the leader of JMB (Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh, a domestic militant outfit)."
Chowdhury, 30, a Bangladeshi-Canadian citizen, had been named as the suspected mastermind of the July 1 attack on the cafe in Gulshan, an upscale Dhaka neighbourhood, which left 18 foreigners and two policemen dead.
The police fought an hour-long gun battle with the extremists in Narayanganj, a city 25km south of Dhaka, Mr Hossain said.
"They did not surrender. They threw four, five grenades at police and fired from AK-22 rifles," Bangladesh national police chief A.K.M Shahidul Hoque told AFP.
"Three extremists were killed. Among them, one of the dead persons looked exactly like the photo of Tamim Chowdhury that we have."
Bangladeshi police say Chowdhury, who returned from Canada in 2013, has been leading a faction of JMB, which is also said to be behind scores of murders of members of religious minorities.
On Aug 2, the police announced a two million taka (S$34,000) reward for information leading to Chowdhury's arrest.
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