Bangladesh police say leader of cafe attack has been killed

NEW DELHI – Bangladesh police say a militant suspected of being one of the leaders of an attack on a popular cafe in Bangladesh’s capital that left 20 people dead last year has been killed in a shootout with security officials.

Counterterrorism unit head Monirul Islam said Nurul Islam Marzan was one of two people killed in a shootout early Friday in Dhaka. He did not provide details. Also killed was Saddam Hossain, an accomplice of Marzan, said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.

Police had said earlier that Marzan was one of the leaders of the July 1 attack on a Dhaka restaurant where 20 hostages, including 17 foreigners, were killed.

Khan said Saddam was involved in many killings including the slaying of a Japanese citizen in the hands of the suspected militants in the country’s northern Bangladesh in recent years.

Marzan was identified by police as a leader of the Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh group.

Since the July attack on the cafe, security officials have killed about 40 alleged Islamist militants in raids.

There has been a surge in attacks in Bangladesh in recent years, and dozens of secular bloggers, writers, publishers and members of minority groups and foreigners have been targeted and killed by radical Islamists.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for many of the attacks including the July siege, but Bangladeshi authorities have repeatedly said the IS group has no presence in the Muslim-majority country.