DHAKA: Bangladesh army commandos shot dead two suspected Islamist extre­mists at a hideout in the northeast on Sunday, a day after six people died in explosions claimed by the militant Islamic State (IS) group.

“Our commandos could effectively engage two of them. We can confirm the two were killed,” Brigadier General Fakhrul Ahsan told reporters in Sylhet.

Ahsan said the commandos, armed with rocket launchers as well as rifles, located the men wearing suicide vests on the ground floor of a five-storey building and shot them dead. “The suicide vest of one of them (who died) also exploded,” he said.

Ahsan said the operation was continuing because one or more of the extremists — who were well armed and equipped — were still holed up in the building where they had laid improvised explosive devices.

He did not comment on their identities but police said they were members of a homegrown Islamist militant outfit blamed for a wave of attacks in recent years.

On Saturday two powerful bombs ripped through a crowd near the hideout, killing six people including two police officers and injuring about 50.

The claim of responsibility by IS was rejected by the government and police.

The blasts went off some 400 metres from the hideout, targeting police and hundreds of onlookers who were watching the commando raid. Police said several of the injured were in critical condition, including the intelligence chief of the elite Rapid Action Battalion, which is tasked with combating Islamist extremism.

He was being flown to Singapore for treatment.

Police suspect the blasts were the work of a new faction of the banned extremist group Jamayetul Mujah­ideen Bangladesh, which has carried out a series of deadly attacks on foreigners and religious minorities since 2015.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2017