Terror: IS claim responsibility for attack on mosque

“The Islamic State (IS) claimed credit for the November 26, 2015 attack on a Shia mosque in Bangladesh’s Bogra district”, the SITE Intelligence group said.

Police say at least five unidentified assailants armed with fire arms have opened fire on devotees during evening prayer in a Shiite mosque in northern Bangladesh.

A man injured in an attack on a Shiite mosque is carried for…

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Shia Muslim mosque in Bangladesh on Thursday, in which a cleric was killed and three other people were wounded.

Bangladesh, said the Australian foreign ministry, has experienced a number of terrorist incidents in the past and security agencies in Bangladesh continue to arrest people connected to militant and terrorist organisations.

Since February, four secular bloggers, a publisher and two foreigners – an Italian aid worker and a Japanese agriculture researcher – have been killed, raising concern that religious extremism is growing.

The attack in Bogra follows an October 24 grenade attack on a Shia gathering in Dhaka, which left two dead and dozens injured.

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

Bangladeshi authorities, which have repeatedly denied the presence of ISIS in the impoverished nation, accuse domestic Islamist groups along with the main opposition of carrying out terror attacks to destabilize the country for political gains.

Tensions have rising in Bangladesh since the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, launched a crackdown on militants, putting several leaders on trial for war crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence.

“Basically what is being described as IS attacks in South Asia including Bangladesh, these attacks have had no direct links with the IS”, said Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi.

“The government must ensure security for all minorities including Shias and find out and punish the attackers strictly”, he said.

The attack has been claimed by the Al-Mourabitoun extremist group, which said it had worked in concert with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.