Bangladesh police says two members of Jamaat-e-Islami Party killed in gunfight

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Bangladesh police on Tuesday said they shot dead two members of the country's Jamaat-i-Islami party in gunfights.

Security forces have launched a major crackdown on suspected militants since a Dhaka cafe was attacked in July and left 22 mainly foreign hostages dead.

"Jamaat-e-Islami party leader from the western district of Jhenaidah and a leader of its student wing were killed early on Tuesday," said Senior police officer Azbahar Ali Sheikh.

“They fired from pistols and threw three (molotov) cocktails at policemen when they challenged them at 3:45 am. We fired back and two people were hit and we learnt their identities later,” the officer said.

Top human rights activist Nur Khan Liton has demanded a judicial probe into the killings.

“We've serious questions about these deaths. We think these are extrajudicial killings,” Liton said, saying local newspapers had earlier reported the party workers missing.

A senior Jamaat official denied the two party figures were killed in gunfights, saying both had been picked up by plain-clothed policemen early last month.

“It is cooked up (by police),” he said on condition of anonymity.

In the wake of the massacre, the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group claimed responsibility for the assault but authorities in Dhaka strongly dismissed the claim, arguing that Daesh had no presence in the Muslim-majority country. However, according to security forces, the scale and sophistication of the attack suggested that transnational criminal networks had been involved.

Bangladesh has also been reeling from a wave of recent attacks by militants, with targets including foreigners, members of religious minorities, rights activists and bloggers.




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