Two people, including a policeman, were killed and five injured on Thursday in an explosion and a gunbattle near a mass prayer gathering to celebrate Eid in northern Bangladesh, police said. The attack comes days after 20 hostages were murdered by suspected Islamists in Dhaka.
Live updates:
1.20 p.m.: Our Correspondent Suvojit Bagchi adds : At least 20 people are injured in Thursday morning attack and admitted in the District Hospital of Kishoreganj. Many police personnel are injured in exchange of fire and admitted in a separate hospital in Mymensingh Medical College hospital, police sources told The Hindu . The police check post, adjacent to the open space where an assembly for Eid prayer, was taking place was attacked.
1.18 p.m.: At least one of the bombs exploded during the prayer attended by hundreds of thousands of people at the sprawling Sholakia grounds.
12.43 p.m.: “We are still checking for other miscreants but after this incident prayers were held peacefully and we have asked everyone to go home,” Rahman said.
12.42 p.m.: Two of the attackers were killed, district administrator Zillur Rahman said. The militants attacked police with “sharp weapons” after the grenades exploded, said Mohammad Azimuddin Sheikh, another senior district official. Rahman said the attack had been brought under control.
12.06 p.m.: There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday’s attack, but the government insisted it was carried out by domestic militants fighting to destabilise Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s secular government and establish Islamic rule in the Muslim-majority nation.
12.05 p.m . : Police cordoned off the area and searched the devotees as well as nearby houses for suspects in hiding, said resident Shafiqul Islam, who was among those offering Eid prayers.
11.53 a.m.: TV reports say, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has condemned the attack. She said "Instead of doing Namaz, what kind of Islam is this?". Ms. Hasina added that "Islam says you can't kill innocent people."
11.47 a.m.: Bangladesh media: More police forces dispatched to Kishoreganj where Eid attackers believed to be holed up.
11.43 a.m.: Bangladesh media: Eid congregation attackers have taken shelter at a nearby school, firing on police
11.24 a.m.: Mr. Haq Inu said “Up to nine police constables have been injured in the attack.”
11.23 a.m.: After the blast, police fired on the attackers and killed one of them, assistant police superintendent Tofazzal Hossain said.
11.06 a.m: TV reports say that four killed including a policeman and seven more were injured..
11.00 a.m.: Officials said that two people were killed and injuring several others after a group of suspected radical Islamists hurled homemade bombs. Bangladesh Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said the target of the attack was a police convoy patrolling the religious gathering. The blast killed one police officer and one other person.
10.44 a.m.: Police constable Jahurul Haque, 30, died in the blasts that occurred around 9 a.m., at Azimuddin School gate, a kilometre away from the prayer ground, bdnews24 reported.
10:38 a.m.: PTI reporting that one suspected attacker has also been killed in an exchange of fire with police at the blast site. Roads in the area cordoned off.
10.35 a.m.: Police and local media reported the new attack by militants near a prayer ground where at least 200,000 people were marking the end of Ramadan in the northern Kishoreganj district.
"One police constable is dead and at least five others were injured," Mahbub, a police officer in the district control room, told AFP , without giving details of how the policeman had died.
10:32 a.m.: The private Somoy TV station broadcast footage of a gunfight between police and a group of attackers and reported the policeman had been hacked to death.
IS warns of more attacks in Bangladesh
The Islamic State terror group had on Wednesday issued a new chilling video warning the Bangladesh government of more attacks in the country and across the world until Shariah law is established globally, saying last week’s gruesome attack on a cafe here was just “a glimpse".
The video message believed to be issued from Raqqa, the stronghold of the terror group in strife—torn Syria in Bangla language was first found in an IS-affiliate website and then released on YouTube. > Read more
