1st LD Writethru: Bangladesh's cafe attack master-mind among 2 militants killed in gunfight

Two militants including the master-mind of Bangladesh's 2016 July deadly Gulshan cafe attack Nurul Islam Marzan were killed in a gunfight with police here on Friday, a Dhaka Metropolitan Police official said.

Monirul Islam, chief of DMP's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, confirmed the incident to journalists on Friday.

He said two militants were killed in the early hours of Friday in Dhaka.

Islam said one is identified as Marzan, who police earlier claimed was "in-charge of Gulshan cafe attack".

Another is Saddam Hossain, a member of Neo-JMB (an offshoot of the banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh) blamed for the deadly attack on the Spanish cafe in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on July 1, 2016.

According to police, Saddam was wanted for at least 10 murder cases, including Japanese national Kunio Hoshi murder.

DMP officials said they set up a temporary check post in Dhaka's downtown Mohammadpur area acting on secret information.

They said the militants hurled several bombs on the law-enforcers while trying to escape the check post prompting a retaliation from policemen that triggered a "gunfight" between them.

The duo was caught in the line of fire at one stage, they added.

Islam said law enforcers later found the bodies on the spot.

Law enforcers also recovered a pistol, three rounds of bullets, a knife and a motorbike from the spot, he said.

Bangladeshi police have reportedly so far hunted down and killed at least 40 militants linked to the cafe attack, including master-mind Tamim Chowdhury who was killed in a police raid on Aug. 27 morning.

Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi-Canadian and Sarwar Jahan, identified as Neo JMB chief who was killed during a raid on Oct. 8, have been blamed as the master-minds of the brutal attack on the Spanish cafe that left 20 hostages including 18 foreigners dead on July 1. Endit