Bangladesh kills 3 in deadly crackdown on Islamists

Three Islamist militants were killed Tuesday in gunfights with police as authorities launched a nationwide crackdown on extremists blamed for a series of murders of minorities and secular activists.   

Two "high-ranking" members of the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were shot dead in the capital Dhaka and another JMB militant was killed in the northwestern district of Rajshahi, police officials told AFP.

The two JMB men who were killed in Dhaka had roles "in most of the recent attacks" including the bombing in a Shiite mosque and the murder of a liberal professor, deputy commissioner of police M.R Khaled told AFP.