DHAKA: Bangladesh commandos shot dead four suspected extremists during a fierce 72-hour gunfight, the army said on Monday, after days of bloodshed around the militants’ hideout including blasts claimed by the IS that killed six people.

Heavily-armed troops found four bodies when they forced their way into the five-storey compound in the north-eastern city of Sylhet where the “well-trained” extremists had been holed up since Friday after taking dozens of civilians hostage.

“All four were wearing suicide vests,” Brigadier General Fakhrul Ahsan told reporters in Sylhet, adding one was a female fighter.

The gunbattle began on Friday, when commandos laid siege to the building as they tried to free 78 hostages.

On Saturday, just as they were able to free the civilians, two powerful bombs ripped through a crowd of onlookers near the hideout, killing six people including two police officers and injuring about 50.

The intelligence chief of Bangladesh’s elite counter-terror unit was among those critically injured Saturday’s bombings. He was flown to Singapore for treatment.

The gunfight continued into Sunday, when two of the militants were killed after being spotted on the ground floor and shot. One of the suicide vests exploded during the shootout.

The army did not comment on their identities but police and Bangladesh’s home minister said they were members of a homegrown Islamist militant outfit blamed for a wave of attacks in recent years.

IS took credit for Saturday’s attack but the government and police rejected this claim. Police suspect it was the work of a new faction of Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh, a militant outfit which has killed more than 80 people in a series of attacks targeting mostly foreigners and religious minorities.

IS has claimed responsibility for a spate of killings in the country, including a major attack on a cafe last year that left 22 people dead, but the government has denied the group has a foothold in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has been rocked by a series of suicide attacks this month, including one on a police checkpoint near the main international airport in Dhaka on Friday.

Two of the three attacks, including the airport blast in which the suicide bomber was killed, were also claimed by IS.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2017