DHAKA, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Eight militants have been indicted over the 2016 cafe terror attack in Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka.
A court in Dhaka on Monday filed charges against the militants of Neo-JMB (an offshoot of banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh or JMB) over the terror attack that killed 22 people, mostly foreigners.
Of the accused, six are now in jail while the two others are still on the run.
Judge Mujibur Rahman of the Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal of Dhaka read out the charges to the six militants who pleaded not guilty to the terrorist attack.
The court fixed Dec. 3 to start trial of the case after the incitement.
Monirul Islam, chief of Bangladesh's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, had earlier submitted the charge sheet against the accused.
Five gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Dhaka's diplomatic area Gulshan on July 1, 2016.
Those killed in the attack include nine Italians, seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis, an Indian and a Bangladeshi-born U.S. citizen.
The gunmen also killed two Bangladeshi police officers in the early hours of the attack.
About 12 hours after the attack, the Bangladesh army stormed the restaurant, killing the five attackers.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack.
But Bangladeshi authorities rejected the claim, saying members of the banned local militant outfit plotted the attack.
Since the deadly cafe attack, Bangladeshi police have stepped up anti-militant drive and conducted series of large-scale operations against militants, killing and arresting scores of them.
