Dhaka cafe terror mastermind killed

The police in Bangladesh killed three suspected militants on Saturday, including an alleged mastermind of a major attack on a cafe last month that left 20 people dead.

Police sharpshooters raided a two-storey house in Narayanganj district near the capital Dhaka, after receiving a tip that Tamim Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi-born Canadian, and others were hiding there, top counter-terrorism official Monirul Islam said.

Chowdhury is one of two masterminds of the attack on a popular restaurant in Dhaka on July 1 that killed 20, including 17 foreigners, the police said.

The militants belonged to the banned group Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, or JMB, Bangladesh’s police chief A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque told the reporters.

Chowdhury is also suspected to be behind a July 7 attack on an Id gathering outside Dhaka marking the end of Ramzan, he said. Four people died in that attack, including two police officers. The police found guns, ammunition and meat cleavers in the apartment where the men were holed up. The men also set off explosions to destroy their computers and other evidence, said Sanwar Hossain, a senior police officer.

“We heard explosions inside the apartment and we understood that they were destroying evidence,”

Hossain said. “When we felt that they would not surrender, we made our final push and killed them.”

When the police forced their way into the apartment, they found two bodies near the main door, and Chowdhury's body was found in another room, Hossain said. The Bangladeshi police has been conducting raids across the country to hunt those behind the attacks. After storming the building, a SWAT team made the final push and fatally shot the suspects after they failed to surrender.

Haque said the team asked them to give themselves up but that they kept on firing.

The ISIS group claimed responsibility for the restaurant attack, but officials have denied the claim, saying it was the act of the JMB and that the ISIS elements has no presence in Muslim-majority country.