Bangladesh kills military chief of banned Islamist group

DHAKA: Bangladesh police commandos killed the suspected military chief of a banned Islamist group in a shootout in the capital, a police commissioner said on Thursday, as security forces step up a hunt for militants behind a spate of attacks.
Tensions have rising in the Muslim majority country since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched a crackdown on militant Islam, putting several leaders on trial for war crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence.
The militant groups, on the other hand, have vowed to convert Bangladesh into a sharia-based state.
Police conducted a raid in the Mirpur area of the capital Dhaka late on Wednesday, touching off a brief gunbattle in which Al Bani, identified as the head of the military wing of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, was killed. Police joint commissioner Monirul Islam said Al Bani was the main suspect behind last month’s rare bombing of a Shi’ite shrine that left two people dead and wounded dozens.