The assailants then exchanged gunfire with police, and a woman and an assailant were killed, Hossain said.
Advertisement
Two attackers were arrested, including one who had been shot and injured, while a pistol and machete were recovered from the scene.
“It is possible that these are homegrown terrorists or lone-wolves but I see as a conspiracy to destablise the government by augmenting terrorist activities to frighten them and showing it to the world that Bangladesh is plagued with terrorism”, he said. Reports confirm that homemade bombs were used by the group of attackers, and they threw them at collected Policemen near a ground, which is used for prayers.
Late Tuesday the Islamic State terror group, which had claimed responsibility for Friday’s hostage siege as it happened, issued a video threatening more violence to come, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a terror monitoring service.
The violence comes just days after the country suffered a deadly hostage crisis in which 28 were killed, including 20 hostages, two policemen and six of the attackers.
Terror struck Bangladesh for the second time within a week as the Muslim-majority nation celebrated the festival of Eid-ul-Fitr on Thursday.
Militants attacked police protecting worshippers at a celebration marking the end Ramadan in Kishoreganj, Bangladesh, on Thursday, killing three and wounding 14.
The biggest service in the capital was at the National Eidgah Maidan where more than 50,000 people, including Bangladesh’s President Abdul Hamid, took part in prayers under a giant canopy.
“We will you to track them down using modern technology, if required they will be given treatment in specialised facilities”, she said.
Bangladesh’s Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu again portrayed the latest attack as being created to topple Hasina.
She urged parents and school authorities to report to police if their sons or students had gone missing since the Dhaka attack was carried out by youths who went missing several months ago.
Bangladesh has suffered a series of bloody killings of secular bloggers, foreigners, members of the gay community, Hindu priests and other minorities since 2013, violence that has intensified during the a year ago.
“We don’t know which group they belong to but they are suspected members of (an) extremist terrorist group”. 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.
“They are anti-Islam, anti-religion and anti-government. It is a political attack to oust and topple the secular government of Sheikh Hasina”, Inu said.
Advertisement
Is violent extremism on the rise in Bangladesh?
