IS claims attack on B’desh Shia shrine; 1 dead

Dhaka, November 27 

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Bangladesh on Thursday, killing a cleric and wounding three other people, the second attack on the country's tiny Shia Muslim community in a month.

Witnesses said three young men stormed into the mosque in northwestern 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," police official Ahsan Habib said.

Two people from two nearby villages had been picked up for questioning about the attack, another police officer Arifur Rahman said.

SITE monitoring service said that Islamic State had claimed responsibility for the attack, just as it did for the previous bombing on the biggest Shi'ite 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. — Reuters