DHAKA (Reuters) - Three Islamist militants were killed on Saturday during a police operation in Bangladesh’s north east Borohat of Moulavibazar, said Monirul Islam, chief of the counter-terrorism unit of Bangladesh police.

“Police asked them to surrender but instead the female militant (of the three)...responded with a grenade attack on SWAT,” Monirul told reporters.

On Thursday as many as eight militants including women and children blew themselves up with a grenade in the north-east of the Bangladeshi capital rather than surrender, police said.

The operation on Saturday was the latest clash in the South Asian country that has seen a rise in Islamist violence.

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Saturday urged Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) leaders to work together to fight militancy and terrorism.

Islamic State and al Qaeda have made competing claims over killings of foreigners, liberals and members of religious minorities in Bangladesh, a mostly Muslim country of 160 million people.

The government has consistently ruled out the presence of foreign groups, blaming domestic militants instead.