Dhaka, Feb 23 (IANS): A policeman was killed Sunday and two others were injured when militants attacked them to snatch away three prisoners, including two death row militants, in Bangladesh's Mymensingh district.

Firoz Talukder, officer-in-charge of Mymensigh police station, told Xinhua that "Constable Atiqul Islam died on the spot".

A van carrying the convicts from a prison in Gazipur district, 37 km away from Dhaka, to a court in Mymensingh, was bombed by members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned Islamic militant group, he said.

"Two injured policemen were rushed to hospital," said Talukder.

According to police, two of the JMB militants who escaped during the attack were on death row while another was sentenced to life imprisonment.

At least six leaders of the militant group were hanged Friday by the government for killing two judges in 2005. Among them were JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman, an Afghanistan war veteran, and his second-in-command Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai.

The JMB militants killed two judges in Jhalkathi town in November 2005. The group made the headlines after it exploded almost 500 bombs simultaneously Aug 17, 2005 across Bangladesh, including capital Dhaka.

After the series of blasts, the militants carried out suicide attacks near courts killing judges, lawyers and policemen. The militants had targeted courts as they considered the current judiciary as the stumbling block in their mission of establishing Islamic law in the country.

In 2005, the JMB killed 28 people in bomb and suicide attacks in Bangladesh which also injured hundreds of others.