DHAKA: Bangladesh police said on Tuesday they shot dead two members of the country’s largest Islamist party in gunfights, as a rights activist demanded an independent probe on concerns of extra-judicial killings.

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

But the crackdown which has seen a string of suspects killed in gunbattles has sparked concerns that opposition activists were among those being targeted.

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

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

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

“We’ve serious questions about these deaths. We think these are extra-judicial killings,” he said, adding local newspapers had earlier reported the Islamists 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.

He said other Jamaat members have also been killed in “fake gunfights”, claims rejected by police.

The government has launched a nationwide crackdown on Jamaat activists in recent years, following deadly protests in which tens of thousands of Islamists were either detained or charged.

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

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2016