Bangladesh kills two suspects linked to 2016 Dhaka cafe attack

Bangladesh security forces on Monday killed at least two people suspected of belonging to an extremist militant group behind a deadly cafe attack in Dhaka in 2016, police said after a raid at a tin-shed hideout in the capital.

Police cordoned off the area after receiving information about the presence of suspected members of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, a home-grown militant group that killed 22 people in the cafe attack.

“When our forces knocked on the door, the residents of the house fired at our people instead of opening it,” Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of the legal and media wing of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), told reporters. “Then members of the RAB responded. There is still huge amount of explosives and our special force are trying to remove it.”

Khan said three people, including the owner of the house, had been detained for questioning.

Bangladesh launched a crackdown on militancy after the cafe attack as part of what Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina calls a “zero tolerance” policy.

Militants attacked the cafe in July 2016, taking 22 hostages, mostly foreigners, who were killed over 12 hours.