At least two policemen and a female civilian have been killed and nine police officers wounded when bombs were hurled near a huge Eid prayer meeting in northern Bangladesh, officials said.
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At least five militants launched an assault on police in Kishoreganj town, about 140 km (90 miles) from the capital Dhaka, with small bombs before setting upon them with “sharp weapons”, said chief district administrator, Mohammad Azimuddin Biswas.
Bangladesh has also seen a spate of attacks on secular bloggers, gay activists, academics and members of religious minorities, with more than 40 killed since February 2013. Kishoreganj ASP Obaidul Hasan said the blasts spread panic among thousands who were beginning to gather near the ground, but the prayers were not disrupted, bdnews24.Com reported.
Blood stains at the site in Kishoreganj district of Bangladesh after terrorists killed four people and injured 13 at a high school. Some of them were armed with machetes which was a hallmark of recent attacks in Bangladesh.
A day before the event, police said they had put strict security measures in place, including uniformed and plain clothes officers as well as closed circuit security cameras. 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.
Tushar, the son of Army major Washikur Azad, is one of the three men who appeared in the video released yesterday – days after Islamist gunmen stormed a popular restaurant in Dhaka’s diplomatic enclave and killed 22 people. The attackers held about 35 hostages overnight, torturing and killing 20 of them, including 17 foreigners from Japan, Italy and India.
“Social media has become a fertile ground for recruiting militants”, the head of the telecoms regulator Shahjahan Mahmood told AFP.
Sushma Swaraj expressed her firm confidence that the government of Bangladesh will do its utmost to bring those responsible for this cowardly attack to justice so that such attacks are not repeated in future. “The people of this country never support militancy”.
A top official of Indian Railways said the decision was taken after consulting the Bangladesh authorities and it is a cautionary step taken temporarily as the train might be a possible target of terrorists. “They are the enemies of Islam”, she said. “I can not figure out how these people call themselves Muslim”, the prime minister said.
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The government routinely credits the attacks to homegrown radical groups, rather than the work of a global jihad network such as ISIS or local affiliates of al-Qaeda, both of which have claimed responsibility in different incidents.
