Police question two over Bogra Shia mosque attack

Police have detained two persons for questioning in connection with Thursday’s shooting in a Shia mosque in Bogra.

Bogra Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 27 Nov 2015, 05:52 AM
Updated : 27 Nov 2015, 12:37 PM

The mosque’s treasurer Sona Mia filed a case with Shibganj police the same night, accusing unidentified assailants of committing the crime.

Shibganj Police Station OC Ahsan Habib said the law enforcers arrested Anowar Hossain, 48, and Jewel, 25, from the area on Friday morning.

“We’re trying to get information but have not shown them arrested in the case,” he said.

Locals said three assailants opened fire on a group of Shias offering evening prayers. The shooting left the mosque’s Muezzin Moazzem Hossain, 70, dead and three others injured.

It is the second attack on the Shia minority in Bangladesh, coming a month after the bombing of a Shia procession in Old Dhaka on Ashura.

OC Habib said police found eight empty bullet cartridges inside the mosque and noted that three bullets had hit a pillar.

The situation in Shibganj is tense following the shooting. Additional police personnel have been deployed in the area.

Locals said the area had been free of any communal strife between Shias and Sunnis.

Jihadist threat monitoring portal SITE Intelligence Group reported that the militant group IS had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Both the government and security forces have repeatedly maintained that the Middle East-based militant group has no presence in Bangladesh.

The IS, saying it has a “regional leader” in Bangladesh, has held out the threat of carrying out more attacks in the country.