Bangladesh mosque attack: ISIS claims responsibility, one killed

At least five assailants opened fire Thursday on devotees during evening prayers at a Shiite mosque in northern Bangladesh, leaving one person dead and three others wounded, police said. Shi'ites are a tiny minority in Bangladesh, whose population of about 160 million is nearly entirely Sunni, and have not been the target of sectarian violence.

A man injured in an attack on a Shiite mosque is carried for...

Bangladesh's intelligence officials have they said they tracked down the group after investigating a blog called "Ansarullah Bangla Team", which had five administrators, including two in Pakistan.

The Bogra Shia mosques' managing committee President Abu Jafar said: "Those who are engaged in carrying out militant activities across the world and are also involved in anti-Shia activities might have links with this attack".

Amid rising threat to foreign nationals, Australia on Friday asked its citizens to voluntarily leave Bangladesh, adding that it would withdraw government-funded volunteers by December 31.

US-based monitoring organisation SITE reported the group, which has claimed responsibility for a number of recent attacks in Bangladesh, said it had targeted the Shiite worshippers. "Surely, there is an worldwide conspiracy behind these attacks", said Habib Reza, an official from Hussaini Dalan, the main Shia shrine in Dhaka and the scene of last month's bombing.

Police had conducted a raid in the Mirpur area of the capital Dhaka late on Wednesday, touching off a brief gunbattle in which Al Bani, identified as the head of the military wing of the militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, was killed.

The mosque's imam, 70, who had been leading the prayers, was also killed in the deadly attack.

According to the Daily Star, two people have been arrested in connection with the attacks.

March 30: Three men use meat cleavers to hack 26-year-old blogger Washiqur Rahman Babu to death in Dhaka.

Bangladesh is a predominantly Sunni Muslim nation, but attacks on Shia Muslims are extremely rare. They dismiss an IS claim of responsibility and say the culprits were likely from the banned local group Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh.

The ISIS terror group, which holds control of vast swaths of Syria and Iraq, has claimed its responsibility for Bangladesh attack through affiliated activists and sympathizers online.