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Islamic State claims responsibility for Bangladesh mosque attack | Islamic State claims responsibility for Bangladesh mosque attack |
(35 minutes later) | |
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. | 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. |
In the second attack on the country’s tiny Shia community in a month, witnesses said three young men stormed into the mosque in the north-western Bogra district and shot at worshippers indiscriminately during prayers. | |
“The attackers entered the mosque and opened fire on the devotees after locking the main gate and then fled immediately after the shooting,” said a police official, Ahsan Habib. | |
Two people from nearby villages have been detained for questioning about the attack, another police officer said. | |
Related: Militant group publishes global hitlist of bloggers, activists and writers | Related: Militant group publishes global hitlist of bloggers, activists and writers |
The monitoring service Site said Islamic State had claimed responsibility for the attack, just as it did for the previous bombing on the biggest Shia shrine in the country. | |
Muslim-majority Bangladesh has seen a rise in Islamist violence in recent months, with two foreigners, four secular writers and a publisher killed this year. | Muslim-majority Bangladesh has seen a rise in Islamist violence in recent months, with two foreigners, four secular writers and a publisher killed this year. |
Australia said on Friday that it had given permission to families of government staff posted in Bangladesh to return home, saying there was a threat to Australian and western interests in the country. | |
The foreign ministry said it planned to withdraw all Australian government-funded volunteers from Bangladesh by 31 December. | |
“There is reliable information to suggest that militants may be planning to target Australian and western interests in Bangladesh,” the ministry said in a travel advice update on its website. Last month Australia cancelled a cricket tour of Bangladesh, although it played a football qualifier game in Dhaka on 17 November. | |
This month the US state department also issued a travel alert for Bangladesh, saying there was reliable information that terrorist attacks could occur against foreigners. | |
Related: Sheikh Hasina: ‘I want to make Bangladesh poverty-free’ | Simon Tisdall and Anna Ridout | Related: Sheikh Hasina: ‘I want to make Bangladesh poverty-free’ | Simon Tisdall and Anna Ridout |
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. | |
On Thursday police said about a dozen Christian priests in the north had received death threats, a week after an Italian doctor working as a missionary was shot and wounded. “We have already stepped up security around the churches,” the local police chief Abdullah Al Faruk said. | |
Bangladesh’s government has rejected Islamic State claims of involvement in the attacks and says local militants are involved. Critics say the government is whipping up a climate of fear to go after its political rivals. | Bangladesh’s government has rejected Islamic State claims of involvement in the attacks and says local militants are involved. Critics say the government is whipping up a climate of fear to go after its political rivals. |
Earlier on Thursday, police said they had killed a militant suspected to have masterminded the 24 October attack on the Shia shrine in Dhaka. Police said he was the military chief of a banned underground militant group. |
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