Bangladesh police on Sunday arrested four suspected Islamist militants, including two linked to the slaying of a Japanese man one year ago, in a raid on their hideout in an abandoned brick kiln.

The Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants threw homemade bombs, wounding three police, before they were overpowered, according to police. Guns, explosives and other weapons were found at the scene.

The arrests were made some 300 km (186 miles) north of Dhaka in Rangpur district, where Kunio Hoshi, a 65-year-old agriculturalist, was killed while working on a farming project in the impoverished, majority Muslim country.