Bangladesh remains on edge and still in mourning from the devastating terror siege last week, where militants took hostages at a popular cafe, hacking 20 people to death and killing two police officers. The prayer gathering in Kishoreganj is by far the biggest such congregation in Bangladesh.
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The country’s information minister said the target of the attack was a police convoy patrolling the religious gathering.
Tofazzal Hosain, who is the district’s deputy police chief, has been quoted by the media as saying that several people had taken part in the attack and some had been armed with machetes – a hallmark of recent Islamist killings in Bangladesh. A Hindu woman was also killed as she was hit by a stray bullet that penetrated her hut. They are in a critical condition and have been shifted to a military hospital in Dhaka.
Police said at least 13 people were injured in the blasts and gunfire at the Azimuddin High School gate, a kilometre away from the ground, around 9 a.m.
It is not known how many attackers were involved, but Zillur Rahman, the district council administrator, reportedly said that they are believed to have been young and probably in their early twenties.
H.T. Imam, a political adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also said security officials had seen online warnings about an impending attack on Friday and ordered major hotels and restaurants in the neighbourhood of the café shut.
The attack came after extremists killed 20 hostages at the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Dhaka last week.
One of the men in the Islamic State video said they would not stop until establishing Shariah law all over the world, reported the Dhaka Tribune.
“The US government assesses that the terrorist threat is real and credible”, the advisory said.
The ongoing spate of attacks begun in 2013 has generally targeted atheists, religious minorities and others considered by militants to be “enemies of Islam”. “The people of this country never support militancy”. “Police had their details and been looking for them for a while”, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Haque told reporters. The government says two domestic militant groups trying to replace secular democracy with Shariah rule are responsible for the violence.
“The government of India will strongly stand by our brothers and sisters of Bangladesh in this fight”, Mukherjee said in a statement.
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Attacks by militants claiming association with both Al Qaeda and the Islamic State are becoming more common in Bangladesh. “We will give them all cooperation to find their missing boys and for their treatment, if necessary”, she said.
