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Updated: Oct 08, 2016 22:32 IST

Bangladeshi security officials on Saturday killed 11 suspected militants of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in three separate raids as the country reinforced its counter-terrorism efforts. The suspects were members of the banned group Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, or JMB, which the government has blamed for a deadly attack in July at a restaurant in Dhaka, the capital, said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan. Khan said one of the men killed in Gazipur was identified as Akash, a militant who had taken over the JMB's leadership after former leader Tamim Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi Canadian who fought in Syria for the Islamic State group, was killed along with two associates in a raid in August. "We requested them to surrender but they opened fire at our officers, which prompted them to retaliate," Khan said, adding that forces “seized money from these extremists that they got through robbery.”

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Firearms, meat cleavers found



Firearms, bullets and meat cleavers were found during the raids, said Mufti Mahmud Khan, a spokesman for the Rapid Action Battalion involved in Saturday’s operations. In recent years, a number of Bengalis belonging to religious minority groups -- including Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Shia Muslims -- have been killed in attacks by JMB and Ansar al-Islam, another militant group. The July 1 attack in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter was claimed by Islamic State militants and was one of the most brazen in Bangladesh, which has been hit by a spate of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in the past year.
Raids by security forces on Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh in Gazipur leave 11 militants dead.