Jihadist threat monitoring portal SITE Intelligence Group has again reported that the Islamic State (IS) has claimed credit for Thursday’s attack on Shias in Bogra.
Police say three men carried out the attack on a Shia mosque during the evening prayers, killing one and injuring three others. Attacks on the Shia minority are rare in Sunni-dominated Bangladesh. Last month, a grenade attack on Shias in Old Dhaka killed two and injured more than a 100.
A common feature of recent militant attacks has been three people on motorcycles carrying out each attack.
Three men on a motorcycle had killed two foreigners in Dhaka and Rangpur, attacked a police outpost, and tried to kill an Italian priest in Dinajpur.
SITE reported that the IS had claimed responsibility for those attacks as well. But Bangladesh maintains the militant group is not active in the country. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina described the attackers of the mosque as “insane” and “not true Muslims”. The IS, in its magazine ‘Dabiq’, has threatened more attacks in Bangladesh, saying its followers had united behind “a new leader”.
On Thursday, police said the chief of the military wing of banned militant outfit JMB had been killed in a ‘gun battle’ the previous night. Police claimed Al Bani alias Mahfuz aka Hojja Bhai was involved in the bombing in Old Dhaka, the killing of a policeman in Ashulia, and the Savar bank heist. On Tuesday, one Nahid Hossain, who police claim ran an online campaign for the IS using the name of ‘Jihadi John’, was arrested in Badda.
