A man who helped plan last year’s terror attack on a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh, has been killed in a shootout with police, authorities said.
Nurul Islam Marzan helped organize the July assault, during which armed gunmen stormed an upscale cafe and took hostages, according to the Inspector General of Police, Shahidul Hoque.
Two police officers and 21 of the captives were killed.
“Marzan was the operational commander and a mastermind behind the Holey Artisan Bakery attack,” said Hoque.
Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman said that four policemen were shot during the encounter. Pistols and explosives were recovered from the scene, he said.
Two other main organizers behind the attack have already been killed.
Bangladeshi-Canadian Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, was killed in August and Abdur Rahman died in October after jumping off a fifth-floor balcony while trying to escape police.
Police say both were leaders of Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a local terror group that authorities allege was responsible for the attack, though ISIS also claimed responsibility.
Though Bangladesh has dealt with terror attacks in the past, with secular bloggers, Hindu priests and others murdered in cold blood, the July 1 attack was of a much larger scale.
The assailants appeared to be “normal, regular guys,” and their target was the Holey Artisan Bakery in the city’s Gulshan district, one of Dhaka’s most affluent neighborhoods and a diplomatic enclave.