Share

Gunmen attack Shiite mosque in Bangladesh; 1 dead

US-based monitoring organisation SITE reported the group, which has claimed responsibility for a number of recent attacks in Bangladesh, said it had targeted the Shiite worshippers.

Advertisement

An Oct. 24 bomb attack on thousands of Shiite Muslims at an annual rally in Dhaka left a teenage boy dead and more than 100 others injured.

Bangladesh’s government has repeatedly said that IS has no organizational presence in the country.

No one has been arrested, police said.

However, police officials confirmed the detention of two people in connection with the attacks.

Three gunmen fired as Shia Muslims were offering their evening prayers at a mosque in Shibganj area of Bogra district.

A month later, police arrest four suspects who say they were hired by “a big brother” to attack “a white man” to create chaos in the country, according to authorities.

The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant activity, said on its website that the IS group had claimed responsibility in a message posted on Twitter.

The government rejects those claims and says local militants are involved in the killings. “Surely, there is an global conspiracy behind these attacks”, said Habib Reza, an official from Hussaini Dalan, the main Shia shrine in Dhaka and the scene of last month’s bombing.

Tensions have rising since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched a crackdown on militants, putting several leaders on trial for war crimes committed during the 1971 war. Police have also claimed they busted a Jamaa’tul Mujahideen Bangladesh “module” on Thursday after killing the outfit’s military chief the night before.

Three masked attackers entered the Imam Khomeini mosque in Haripur village and began shooting indiscriminately before escaping, witnesses told Al Jazeera.

Advertisement

About a dozen Christian clergymen within the north have additionally acquired demise threats, every week after an Italian physician working as a missionary was shot and wounded, police stated on Thursday.

Gunmen Kill Muezzin of Shi'ite Mosque in Bangladesh