Bangladesh attack: Nation suffers second deadly terror attack during Eid prayers

People gathered for Eid prayers in Bangladesh
Abir Abdullah/EPA
Toby Green7 July 2016

Bangladesh was today hit by another deadly attack when a group of gunmen threw homemade bombs and engaged in a gun battle with police protecting hundreds of thousands of people who had gathered for Eid prayers.

Days after 28 were killed following a siege at a cafe in the country’s capital Dhaka, suspected radical Islamists targeted a prayer meeting around 60 miles away in Kishoreganj, held for the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan.

According to officials, one police officer and one of the suspected militants were killed and several injured in the attack.

The country’s information minister said the target of the attack had been the police convoy patrolling the religious gathering.

At least one of the bombs exploded before police then engaged in a gun battle with the attackers.

Bangladesh has suffered a wave of extremist attacks recently targeting atheists, religious minorities and other so-called enemies of Islam, many of which, including the hostage taking, have been claimed by Islamic State.

The Bangladeshi government, which has been cracking down on extremist groups for several years, has dismissed the IS claims as opportunistic, and says none of the attacks has been orchestrated from abroad.

Instead, the government accuses home-grown militant groups of waging the violence in order to create political chaos in the country and undermine the secular government.

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