IS claims attack on Shia mosque in Bangladesh: SITE

The Islamic State(IS) group has claimed responsibility for an attack on worshippers at a Shia mosque in northern Bangladesh that killed one and injured three others, the US-based monitoring organisation SITE said on Friday.

Three unknown assailants have opened fire on a Shia mosque in Bangladesh, killing at least one person and leaving three others injured.

The shooting, which took place in the northwestern Bogra district during evening prayer, came hours after a police killed a top militant, who was the main suspect behind last month’s bombing of a Shi’ite shrine that left two people dead and wounded dozens.

Two people from nearby villages have been detained for questioning about the attack, another police officer said.

Bangladesh has been rocked this year by a series of deadly attacks claimed by radical Islamist groups, raising concerns about growing extremism in the mostly Sunni Muslim nation. The violent extremist group has many affiliated groups operating around the world.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a statement after the Bogra attack said those who raided mosques were not “true Muslims” while she ordered law enforcement agencies to launch a probe into the incident.

A group calling itself Islamic State-Bangladesh said it attacked the mosque with machine guns.

Earlier on Thursday, police in Bangladesh said that Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned local Islamist group, had carried out the attack on the Shi’ite procession. “They were picked up from the area of the attack”, it said, without giving further details.

The Islamic State hardline group has also claimed responsibility for the killings of an Italian aid worker and a Japanese agricultural worker, but the Bangladeshi government reiterated there is “no organizational presence” for ISIS in the country.

Police have pledged to step up security in the wake of the attack.

The Jamaat and its leaders openly opposed Bangladesh’s 1971 war to gain freedom from Pakistan.

“Security has been beefed up at all important Shia installations including their mosques in Dhaka ahead of the Muslim’s Friday prayer”, Dhaka police spokesman Muntashirul Islam told AFP.