More than a dozen other people were injured with gunshot or bomb shrapnel wounds, including two in critical condition, he said.
Advertisement
Police chased the assailants through the area, searching nearby homes and body searching some devotees at the gathering, said resident Shafiqul Islam, who was among those offering Eid prayers.
The site of the attack is called Sholakia Eidgah, a large field where hundreds of thousands of people have gathered nearly every year since the early 19th century to pray on the occasion of Eid, according to media.
Kawahara also warned that the terrorist attack in Dhaka will damage the image that the Japanese of the South Asian nation.
Bangladesh has requested that India send bomb experts of the National Security Group (NSG) to help with investigations into both terror attacks.
Echoing similar sentiments, Major General (Retired) S.R. Sinho has attributed the attacks as “homegrown” or “lone-wolf” attacks that are augmenting terrorist activates to defame and destabilise the Hasina Government.
Many of them have been claimed by the self-styled Islamic State group or an offshoot of the Al-Qaeda network.
“Two policemen, an attacker and a woman who was shot during the (subsequent) gunfight were killed”, national police spokesman A.K.M. Shahidur Rahman told AFP. No one was allowed to bring in bags. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government deny that worldwide jihadist networks have gained a foothold in the country.
Unlike previous terrorist attacks in Bangladesh, Thursday’s violence was unusual for being directed entirely at Muslims on one of the religion’s holiest days.
“We will face them with all our might”.
Instead, Hasina’s government has accused her political opponents of backing the militant agenda in Bangladesh, an allegation the opposition parties vehemently deny.
There have been security fears in Dhaka following last Friday’s attack on the cafe.
Bangladesh’s main Islamist party has been banned from contesting polls and most of its leaders have been arrested or else executed after recent trials over their role in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. What group they belonged to was not immediately clear.
Advertisement
Police said two suspected attackers have been detained as a massive manhunt was underway to nab the militants in the neighbourhood with mobilisation of extra forces. In the name of religion they want to have power in the state this has been their plan, they tried in Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria as well.
