Top counter-terrorism official Monirul Islam said police raided a two-storey house in Narayanganj, near the capital Dhaka, early on Saturday and killed the suspects.
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A senior police officer noted that Tamim Chowdhury, the Bangladeshi-Canadian suspected mastermind, has been killed.
Bangladeshi police, however, identified Chowdhury as the leader of a new branch of a domestic terrorist group, the Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, and the government initially denied that the bakery attack had been carried out by members of foreign groups.
Three militants including Bangladesh-born Canadian citizen Tamim Chowdhury were killed during the special operation of the joint forces, said A K M Shahidul Hoque, inspector general of Bangladesh Police. As the law enforcers tried to enter the house, the criminals opened fire from inside, he said. Haque said the team asked them to give themselves up but they went on firing.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Twenty hostages and two police officers were killed in the attack, the worst in the country’s history.
The investigators also found his involvement in the Sholakia attack on the July 7 Eid day that killed four people, including two constables, an attacker, and a local woman.
“The main mastermind of the Holey Artisan (attack) has been eliminated”, Hasina told reporters at her office, referring to the Gulshan cafe incident.
After the sophisticated operation at the Holey Artisan cafe and bakery, however, they have softened that position, casting a wide net to search for dozens of missing Bangladeshi men who may have been radicalized overseas.
The group has been prominently advertising its expansion into Bangladesh, featuring an interview believed to be with Chowdhury in the April edition of its English language magazine.
After a 12-hour siege, commandos stormed the cafe rescuing 13 people, killing six gunmen and arresting another. But as Syed Zain al-Mahmood of The Wall Street Journal told Weekend Edition Saturday, this attack was particularly shocking because it “was something that’s new to Bangladesh – an armed group storming a very popular café and taking hostages”.
Police had announced Tk 2 million reward earlier this month for information leading to Chowdhury’s arrest.
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No charges have been brought in a series of court appearances and a judge refused another bail application on Wednesday, leaving the 47-year-old detained without access to a lawyer or visitation rights for his family.
