Eleven suspected militants of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were gunned down by Bangladeshi security officials during raids on Saturday.
According to the Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the three separate raids against JMB took place at Gazipur near the national capital of Dhaka and in Tangail district. Teams of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police's counter-terrorism unit also took part in the operations.
The terror group JMB is held responsible for several terror attacks across the country, said the minister.
During the raid in Gazipur, security officials recovered bullets, bomb-making materials, meat cleavers and an AK-47 rifle.
The militants, according to the officials, were preparing to carry out terror attacks during the Durga Puja festival which is quite popular in the Muslim-majority nation and witnesses large gatherings.
Hindustan Times reported that the new leader of a splinter group called "Neo JMB", identified as Akash, was killed in the raid at Patartek in Gazipur. According to the newspaper, Akash became the leader of the Neo JMB after the Bangladeshi-origin Canadian Tamim Chowdhury, the alleged mastermind of the Dhaka cafe attack, was killed in a raid at Narayanganj district in August 2016,
Security in the country has been beefed up since ISIS terrorists killed 20 hostages, including an Indian national and 16 more foreigner, in an attack on Artisan Bakery restaurant on 1 July.
Gunmen attacked the café in Dhaka's high-security Gulshan diplomatic area late on that Friday. People from the neighbourhood said that explosions and intense gunfire were heard in the area around the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe.
On 6 July, Islamic State has warned of repeated attacks in Bangladesh and beyond until rule by sharia, Islamic law, is established, saying in a video that the killing of 20 people in a Dhaka cafe was merely a glimpse of what is to come.
"What you witnessed in Bangladesh ... was a glimpse. This will repeat, repeat and repeat until you lose and we win and the sharia is established throughout the world," said a man identified as Bangladeshi fighter Abu Issa al-Bengali, in the video monitored by SITE intelligence site.
Bangladeshi security officials have killed at least 32 suspected militants in several raids in Dhaka and nearby places thereafter.
