“Tamim Chowdhury is dead”.
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Bangladesh-born Canadian citizen Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, the alleged mastermind of the attack on the cafe, was among those killed, he said.
The police raid came two days before John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, is set to arrive in Bangladesh, the highest-ranking Western official to visit the South Asian nation since the attack.
A senior police officer noted that Tamim Chowdhury, the Bangladeshi-Canadian suspected mastermind, has been killed.
It took nearly an hour to complete the operation.
“We found three bodies inside”.
“We’ve given them an opportunity to surrender”, he added. “They threw four-five grenades at police and fired from AK 22 rifles”, Bangladesh national police chief A.K.M Shahidul Hoque told AFP police.
“Three extremists were killed”.
However, the government in Bangladesh has rejected the group’s claim of responsibility, saying worldwide Islamic extremist networks do not have a foothold in the Muslim-majority country.
The forces cordoned off the three-storey house since the morning after getting information that a group of militants were staying there, Mainul Haq, superintendent of Narayanganj police, told The Daily Star.
Together with the elite security force, the Rapid Action Battalion, they have carried out a series of raids on suspected militant hideouts.
Police had announced Tk 2 million reward earlier this month for information leading to Chowdhury’s arrest. The wire service reports that police believe he returned to the country in 2013 and was coming from Abu Dhabi.
A gunfight erupted early August 27 when police raided a militant hideout in Narayanganj, 20 kilometers east of the capital, Dhaka.
Bangladeshi police have been conducting raids across the country to hunt those behind the attacks. The police suspects Zia, a former Army major whose full name is Syed Ziaul Haque, heads another local extremist group called Ansar al Islam, blamed for the machete murders of a dozen secular writers and two gay activists.
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Daesh had claimed responsibility for the cafe attack. The suspects belonged to Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, a banned terror group, authorities said. Critics have accused Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s administration of attempting to exploit the attacks in order to target domestic opponents.
