AFP/Dhaka

An Islamic militant from a banned group who had escaped from a prison van was killed in a gunfight in northern Bangladesh yesterday hours after being recaptured, police said.

Rakib Hasan and two other convicts from the outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) escaped on Sunday after attackers hurled bombs and opened fire at the van in the northern district of Mymensingh, killing a
policeman.

Hasan, 35, and another escapee were awaiting execution while the third was serving a life sentence for their involvement in nationwide mass bombings in 2005 that killed 28 people.

Police recaptured Hasan later on Sunday.

They said they were escorting him yesterday to a place in neighbouring Tangail district where he had said the other convicts might have taken shelter, when a gunfight
broke out.

“As we escorted Hasan to the place, his friends opened fire on police. We were forced to retaliate with gunshots,” Tangail district police chief Hasibul Alam said.

“At one stage Hasan was shot dead after receiving bullets in the chest and throat (from his friends),” he said, adding police have launched a hunt for the other escapees.

The JMB set off hundreds of bombs nationwide between August and December 2005, including more than 400 small bombs in one day alone.

The then Islamist-allied government launched a crackdown on the banned group and prosecuted more than 1,000 of its members.

In 2007 an army-backed government hanged six JMB members, including its founder and leader Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his deputy. But the organisation is since
believed to have regrouped.

Jumat ul Mujahedeen Bangladesh wants to establish strict Islamic laws in Muslim-majority Bangladesh and reportedly has connections with international radical groups.