Two Bangladeshis, including an imam, were gunned down in a brazen daylight attack in New York City while returning home from a mosque after Zohr prayers on Saturday.
The deceased were identified as Imam Alauddin Akhunji, 55, hailing from Chunarghat upazila of Habiganj and Tera Uddin, 64, of Laxmipasha village of Golapganj upazila in Sylhet.
Miscreants attacked and opened fire on them when they left the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque in the Ozone Park section of Queens shortly before 2pm (Local time), leaving them critically injured, reports the Associated Press(AP) quoting New York police. They were taken to Jamaica Hospital where doctors declared them dead.
“Both the Imam and other Bangladeshi national died following the incident,” Shameem Ahsan, Consul General at Bangladesh Consulate in New York, told UNB on Sunday.
The diplomat said he visited both the crime spot and Jamaica Hospital, where they were sent with injuries, right after the incident. Quoting police, AP reported from New York that no motive has been established and there is no reason to believe the men were shot because they were Muslims.
“There’s nothing in the preliminary investigation to indicate that they were targeted because of their faith,” Deputy Inspector Henry Sautner of the New York Police Department was quoted by AP as saying.
Members of the Bangladeshi community served by the mosque said they want the shooting to be treated as a hate crime. More than 100 people attending a rally at the shooting site on Saturday night chanted, ‘We want justice!’
UNB Habiganj correspondent reports: Alauddin Akhunji, father of three sons and five daughters, went to the US along with his first wife, one son and four daughters in 2011. His second wife, two sons and a daughter stay in at Shayestanagar in the district town. Alauddin’s brother Nasiruddin Akhunji demanded punishment of the killers of his brother. His son Fayezuddin Akhunji said, “My father was scheduled to return home on August 31…I want immediate punishment of the killers.”
Thara Uddin, who used to live near the house of Imam Alauddin, went to New York along with his family four years ago. Meanwhile, Bangladesh has condemned the killing of the Imam and his associate describing it as a cowardly act on peace-loving people. “We condemn the killing of Bangladeshi origin Imam in NYC…it’s a cowardly act on peace loving people,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam tweeted on Sunday. Earlier, US Ambassador in Dhaka Marcia Bernicat mourned the deaths of the two Bangladesh-origin nationals in New York saying violence is not the solution. “We mourn the deaths of Imam Akonjee and Thara Uddin. violence can never be the solution,” she tweeted on Sunday. Ambassador Bernicat in a separate message said Imam Akonjee was a respected community leader. “We join all Bangladeshis to condemn the killings of Imam Akonjee and Thara Uddin, and honor what these two men stood for,” she said.
