Bangladesh police kill mastermind of cafe terror attack

Bangladeshi police raided a militant hideout and killed four militants, including the mastermind of an attack on a cafe in Dhaka last month.

Bangladesh-born Canadian citizen Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, the mastermind of the attack on the cafe, was among those killed.

The country's Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime chief Monirul Islam said the raid was carried out in Naraynganj on the outskirts of Dhaka.

Chowdhury had earlier been named by police as the mastermind of the attack on the cafe in Gulshan, an upscale Dhaka neighbourhood.

The bodies of the militants were retrieved after police staged an hour-long gun battle.

Bangladesh's government has blamed the JMB for the July 1 cafe attack in which 20 people, including 18 foreigners, were killed along with two policemen.

Italians, Japanese, an American and an Indian were among those killed.

Police say Chowdhury, 30, who returned from Canada in 2013, has been leading a faction of the militant group, also said to be behind scores of murders of members of religious minorities.

On August 2, police announced a 2 million taka ($25,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of Chowdhury, who disappeared after masterminding the cafe attack.

Together with the elite security force, the Rapid Action Battalion have carried out a series of raids on suspected militant hideouts.

In June, more than 11,000 people were arrested in a bid to quash a spate of brutal murders of secular writers, gay rights activists and religious minorities.

Terrorist goup DAESH claimed responsibility for the Gulshan attack, releasing photos from inside the cafe during the siege.

Bangladeshi authorities have rejected the claim, saying international militants networks have no presence in the world's third largest Muslim majority nation.

The country 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.

Both DAESH and a branch of Al-Qaeda have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks.