Police officer hacked to death and another police officer killed in Bangladesh during Eid prayer

Another terrorist attack occurred yesterday in Bangladesh, resulting in the deaths of at least 3 people. The latest attack claimed the lives of 2 police officers and a woman during the Eid prayer at a mosque, which was attended by at least 200,000 people and was approximately 90 miles north of the previous terrorist attack in Dhaka that killed 22 in a cafe last week. Witnesses state that a police officer was hacked to death with machetes, while the other two fatalities were from gunfire or the homemade explosives that were thrown. Several others were wounded in the attack as well. One of the attackers was captured alive by police (see the featured image above). According to Hindustan Times, the intended target of the attack may have been a liberal cleric that recently spoke out against radical Islam,

“Maulana Farid-uddin Masud, the chief cleric of the main mosque in Kishoregunj town that was attacked, collected more than 100,000 signatures, including from leading Islamic scholars and intellectuals, against a recent wave of extremist attacks in the country targeting atheists, religious minorities.

Masud had described radical Islamists as pursuing “empty Islam” and said those perpetrating violence in the name of the faith would “go to hell”.

“We believe he was the target,” Tofazzal Hossain, assistant superintendent of police in Kishoregunj, told Hindustan Times.

Advertisement

Although the Islamic State claimed credit for the attack, the government has blamed home-grown militant groups of waging the violence in order to create political chaos in the country and undermine the secular government.”

Image courtesy of AFP