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Gunmen attack Shia mosque in Bangladesh, one killed

The assailants fired guns on the devotees as soon as they completed the evening prayer at Al-Mustafa Mosque of Haripur village in Shibganj sub-district, witnesses said.

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Bangladesh police commandos killed the suspected military chief of a banned group in a shootout in the capital, a police commissioner said on Thursday, as security forces step up a hunt for militants behind a spate of attacks.

DHAKA Gunmen opened fire at a Shi’ite mosque in Bangladesh on Thursday, leaving one dead and three wounded, police said, in the second such attack on the country’s tiny Shia Muslim community.

The shooting in northwestern Bogra district came a day after police killed a top militant, the main suspect behind last month’s bombing of a Shi’ite shrine that left two people dead.

Bangladesh has seen several violent incidents in recent months, including attacks on foreigners and secular bloggers.

Police official Abdul Karim told AFP: “Three other worshippers were injured after three or four unidentified assailants fired at 15 to 18 Shiite Muslims as they were praying inside a mosque”.

An Italian aid worker was killed in September and a Japanese citizen in October.

“We are verifying whether he actually had contacts with the radical group”, Mr Islam said.

Tensions have been rising in over the trials of Islamists for war crimes during its struggle for independence in 1971 and some leaders of the Jamaat as well the BNP, have been executed.

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The government has rejected Islamic State claims of involvement in other attacks and says local militants are involved.

Gunmen attack during prayers at Bangladesh mosque