Bangladesh Dhaka cafe attack mastermind's close aide killed in police "shootout"

A close aide of mastermind of the brutal Dhaka cafe attack has been killed in a "shootout" with police in Bogra district, some 197 km northwest of Dhaka.

The district's senior police official Sonaton Chakraborty told journalists that 32-year-old Abu Musa, involved in the killings of two minority community people last year, was killed in a "gunfight" early Tuesday.

Musa was a leader of militant group Neo-JMB and a close aide of Gulshan attack mastermind Rajib Gandhi, he said.

Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police last month arrested Jahangir Alam alias "Rajib Gandhi," a leader of Neo-JMB blamed for the deadly attack in July 2016.

Neo-JMB is an offshoot of the banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh.

Neo-JMB has been blamed for the brutal attack on the Spanish cafe that left 22 people including 18 foreigners dead on July 1. last year. Endit