A suspected militant believed by Bangladesh police to have been among the planners of a July cafe attack that killed 22 people killed himself during a police raid on a hideout in the capital, police said Sunday.

The July attack in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter was claimed by the jihadi group Islamic State and was one of the most brazen in Bangladesh, which has been hit by a spate of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in the past year.

The government has pinned the blame on domestic militant groups, but security experts say the scale and sophistication of the incident suggest links to a trans-national Islamist network.