BANGLADESH SAYS CHIEF OF MILITANT GROUP BLAMED FOR CAFE SIEGE DEAD

DHAKA: The head of a Bangladeshi Islamist group accused of carrying out a deadly siege at a cafe in July died during an arrest operation earlier this month, an elite security unit said Friday. Abdur Rahman died in hospital on October 8 after jumping from the fifth floor of a building on the outskirts of Dhaka while attempting to evade arrest, the Rapid Action Battalion said in a statement. The identity of Rahman, who was leader of the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh, was later confirmed through his possessions and by his family who were shown pictures of his body, the statement added. Several documents, letters and emails that were later retrieved by the RAB “all proved that Abdur Rahman was the emir of the new JMB”.