Three suspected Islamists were killed on Tuesday in separate gunbattles with Bangladesh police which launched a massive crackdown on extremists as a Hindu priest became the latest casualty in a wave of attacks on secular activists and minorities in the Muslim-majority country.
The three were operatives of the outlawed Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) outfit which was targeted by Superintendent of Police Babul Aktar whose wife was brutally killed by the militants on Sunday.
Two operatives of JMB were killed in a shootout with police detectives here while another member of the same outfit was killed in a gunfight with police in the northwestern Rajshahi city, police said.
“The two were killed in a predawn encounter at Kalshai area (in the capital)... They first fired gunshots, prompting our detectives to retaliate as they raided the area on a secret tip-off,” Dhaka police’s spokesman Masudur Rahman said.
The two are said to be involved in several recent attacks including the bombing of a Shiite mosque and the murder of a liberal professor, police said.