Bangladesh police said Sunday they were hunting more extremist leaders after shooting dead the suspected mastermind of a deadly cafe attack, on the eve of US Secretary of State John Kerry s first visit.
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The most recent attack killed 20 people, including 17 foreigners, last month in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital.
They lauded the August 26 raid that led to the death of Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury who, the Bangladesh police claims, is the mastermind behind the Dhaka café attack.
The gunfight, in which two other suspected terrorists were also killed, erupted early Saturday when police raided a militant hideout in the town of Narayanganj, 12 miles east of Dhaka.
After the sophisticated operation at the Holey Artisan cafe and bakery, however, they have cast a wide net to search for dozens of missing Bangladeshi men who may have been radicalized overseas.
Two security personnel and six militants were also killed when army commandos stormed the cafe to rescue the hostages.
The police had offered cash bounties of about $25,000 this month for information leading to the arrest of Chowdhury and for another militant, Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque, who was suspected of being involved in recent killings of secular writers.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said Saturday in televised remarks to reporters that the identities of the two militants killed with Chowdhury would be released after an investigation, but that one of them appeared to be Chowdhury’s right-hand man.
Global Affairs Canada has said Canadian officials are monitoring Khan’s situation.
Md. Abdul Quaiyum, president of the Bangladesh Canada Association of Windsor Essex, said the Chowdhury family was known in the community, though not very well.
Ambassador Ziauddin said an important item on Dhaka’s agenda during the talks with Kerry is Bangladesh’s request for the United States to reinstate duty-free entry of the country’s textile products.
USA officials say a longstanding counterterrorism dialogue has intensified in recent months and work with the Bangladeshi police and military will continue with an eye toward further cooperation.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina praised police and intelligence agencies for the operation which killed Tamim Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi-Canadian believed to have planned the attack.
But police say the homegrown JMB, which has pledged allegiance to the IS group, was behind the raid.
Police conducted the raid acting on a tip-off that Tamim had rented a room in the Paikparah building.
The US State Department has said he will focus on strengthening the partnership with Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has been reeling from a deadly wave of attacks in the last three years, including on foreigners, rights activists and members of the country’s religious minorities.
Kerry will fly to neighbouring India later Monday to take part in a regular India-US strategic dialogue on economic cooperation and security issues.
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Critics say Hasina’s administration has been in denial about the nature of the threat posed by extremists and accuse her of trying to exploit the attacks to demonise her domestic opponents.
