Bangladesh police ‘kill mastermind of Gulshan cafe terror attack’

BANGLADESH police say they have killed the suspected mastermind of a horrific attack on a café in which 22, mostly foreign, hostages died last month.

Tamin Chowdhury, who police say planned the deadly attack on July 1, was one of three suspects killed during an hour-long gun battle with officers in Narayanganj, a city 16 miles south of Dhaka, officers said.

“Tamim Chowdhury is dead. He is the Gulshan attack mastermind and the leader of JMB [Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh],” said senior police officer Sanwar Hossain, referring to a homegrown extremist group which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

“The operation went on for an hour. We can see three dead bodies. They did not surrender. They threw four to five grenades at police and fired from AK 22 rifles,” Shahidul Hoque, the Bangladesh national police chief, said yesterday.

The raid came two days before John Kerry, the US secretary of state, is due to arrive in Bangladesh, the highestranking Western official to visit the South Asian nation since the attack last month.

Officials said security issues, including Dhaka-Washington anti-terror cooperation, will feature in talks between Mr Kerry and his Bangladeshi counterpart tomorrow.

Chowdhury, 30, a Bangladeshi-Canadian citizen who returned from Canada in 2013, had already been named by police as the suspected mastermind of the attack on the café in Gulshan, an upscale Dhaka neighbourhood.

Twenty-two hostages, including 18 foreigners, and two policemen were killed when a group of attackers armed with knives, guns and bombs stormed into the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka on July 1.

Isil claimed responsibility for the attack, and released photographs from inside the café during the siege, includ- ing of five of the attackers killed by army commandos at the end of the siege.

Bangladesh authorities rejected the theory of Isil involvement, saying a new faction of JMB led by Chowdhury was behind the attack.

However, JMB has pledged allegiance to Isil and analysts say that last April the international terror group identified Chowdhury as the commander of its Bangladeshi branch.

Police say Chowdhury led and financed efforts to radicalise young Muslims since returning from Canada three years ago. A two million taka (£19,000) reward for information leading to his arrest was announced on August 2.

‘The police operation went on for an hour. We can see three dead bodies. They did not surrender’