Dhaka, Bangladesh: US Secretary of State John Kerry held talks with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on combatting extremism on Monday as police killed members of an Islamist group blamed for a deadly cafe siege.

Kerry arrived in the capital Dhaka for his first official visit to deepen cooperation between the two countries including on economic development and human rights.

But the one-day trip is expected to focus on mounting concerns of Islamist violence in the impoverished nation, after gunmen last month attacked an upscale cafe in Dhaka and killed 22 people, mainly foreigners.

‘Let me say what a great pleasure it is to be with the prime minister and to be here in Bangladesh,’ Kerry said of his meeting with Hasina and other top officials.

The United States and Bangladesh have a ‘longstanding partnership’ with ‘programmes in place for many, many years that deal with counter-terrorism and security partnership,’ a US State Department senior official said ahead of Kerry’s arrival.

Bangladeshi officials have also briefed that tackling extremism would be the main focus of the talks, with the Daily Star newspaper running the headline ‘Fighting Terrors Tops Agenda’ on its front-page.

Talks between the two countries have intensified in recent months, the US official said, with the US engaging with Bangladesh police and the military charged with tackling extremists.

Bangladesh has been reeling from a series of attacks in the last three years, including on foreigners, rights activists and members of religious minorities in the Muslim-majority nation.

Kerry is due to meet with civic leaders as well as embattled Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia, a bitter rival of Hasina.

Hasina’s government has launched a major crackdown on Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party which it accuses of orchestrating a wave of deadly street violence last year in a bid to force the premier to resign.

Kerry will fly to neighbouring India later on Monday to take part in a regular India-US strategic dialogue on economic cooperation and security issues. 

He will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, amid rising tensions in the disputed region of Kashmir which is divided between India and its rival northern neighbour Pakistan.