Shiite mosque attack kills one in Bangladesh

However, the Bangladesh Police has maintained it was the handiwork of “local extremists”.

Dhaka – At least one person was killed and three others were injured after unidentified assailants carried out gun attacks at a mosque of minority Muslim sect of Shiite in northern Bangladesh.

The attack came hours after police in Dhaka announced that the militant suspected of being a key to planning bombings on Bangladeshi Shias’ Ashura mourning procession gatherings last month has been “killed in shoot-out”.

The militant groups, on the other hand, have vowed to convert secular Bangladesh, with a population of 160 million people, into a sharia-based state.

“Albany was injured in an encounter with police on Wednesday night”. Three others were undergoing treatment at Bogra Medical College Hospital, he said.

“He was also the main suspect in the murder of a police officer at Ashulia (outside Dhaka) and he slaughtered Khizir Khan, a Sufi leader, early this month”.

The two members of the Jamaat-e-Islami Party, who were paraded before reporters, are being investigated for links with ISIS, which has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Bangladesh including the killing of two foreigners.

The so-called Islamic State group had claimed it carried out the October attack – but the government says IS is not active in Bangladesh, and blamed local militant groups including the JMB.

Hundreds of JMB leaders and activists were rounded up while six top leaders of the group, including Shaikh Abdur Rahman, were hanged in 2007.

The killing of four atheist bloggers and a publisher this year has also undermined government efforts to play down the threat posed by hardliners, experts said.