Dhaka, July 30 (PTI): A Bangladeshi-Canadian was today identified as the mastermind behind Bangladesh's worst terror attack, at a cafe in Dhaka's high-security diplomatic zone.

Twenty-two people, mostly foreigners including an Indian woman, were killed in the assualt on the Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1, the police said after new information came to light from a raid on a militant hideout.

An overnight security raid at the Kalyanpur area of Dhaka four days ago provided police the clue to identify Tamim Chowdhury as the architect of recent Islamist assaults, a police officer familiar with the investigations said on the condition of anonymity.

"We found Tamim Chowdhury to be the mastermind of the two (back-to-back terrorist) attacks... a manhunt has been launched to track him down... he now lives in Bangladesh since his return (from Canada) three years ago," he said.

The officer added that evidence gathered from the scene of the July 26 raid at Kalyanpur, in which nine militants were killed, led police to identify Chowdhury who is believed to be in his mid 30s, as the mastermind of the July 1 attack on the Holey Artisan cafe and the assault on an Id gathering in north Sholakia six days later.

A Bangladeshi newspaper earlier reported that Chowdhury appeared as the leader and main financer of a re-organised Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Bangladesh earlier attributed the two attacks to the clandestine outfit.

The report suggested that Chowdhury was working as the link between the re-organised JMB and the Islamic State, which had claimed responsibility for the July 1 attack.

The Id gathering attack left two policemen and a woman dead.

According to the officials, a total of seven terrorists were gunned down.

The police's counter-terrorism unit's chief Monirul Islam had said investigators had the names of several suspected masterminds behind the two "interlinked attacks". Efforts were on to confirm their true identities.

Bangladesh had earlier said they had found no proof of an IS link to the attacks.

Attack on Bauls

Masked attackers stormed a religious meeting place in southwest Bangladesh, cutting off the long hair of the Bauls, police said today.

"About nine to 10 miscreants with masks stormed the (Bauls') meeting place and tied up them to a tree, beat them and set fire to their shelter," said Abu Jihad Mohammad Fakhrul Islam, the officer in charge of Damurhuda police station, 260km south west of Dhaka.

Islam told Reuters the attackers threatened to kill the bauls unless they left the village, taking all their belongings, within 10 days.