Bangladesh security forces kill 4 suspected members of banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen

Four members of a banned Islamist militant group held responsible for the 1 July Holey Artisan Bakery attack in Dhaka were killed during a raid on Saturday, 8 October. Twenty civilians, mostly expatriates, and two policemen were killed in the attack. Six of the attackers were also gunned down by security forces following a long standoff.

Bangladesh had ruled out the involvement of the Islamic State (Isis) that claimed responsibility, or any other international terrorist organisation in the attack. The government blamed local outfit, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, for the deadly incident in the Gulshan neighbourhood in Dhaka.

Rahman Bhuiya, spokesman for the Rapid Action Battalion in Bangladesh, said the four suspected Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen members were killed following a raid by security personnel on militant hideouts on the outskirts of the capital city. Since the attack, security forces in the country have so far killed more than two dozen suspected militants in various shootouts across the country, Reuters reported.

Bangladesh police also claimed in August that they killed the suspected mastermind of the cafe attack, Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury – a Bangladesh-born Canadian citizen. Two other suspected militants were also killed in this raid.

The café attack was targeted at foreign nationals, who frequented the food joint. A group of gunmen suddenly rushed into the café and opened fire on many customers. They then tortured to death many others who could not recite versus from the Quran.

Security experts and the US suspect the attack was, if not perpetrated, supported by the IS (Daesh). However, the Bangladesh government has strongly ruled out the presence of the IS in the country and maintained that home-grown terror outfits were behind the terror attack.