Dhaka: Three people, including two policemen, and a terrorist were killed in Bangladesh after radical Islamists hurled crude bombs and engaged in a shootout with police in Kishoreganj on Thursday.
Bombs exploded near an Eid prayer gathering in Sholakia in northern Kishoreganj district where at least 300,000 people had gathered, police said.
Police said one constable was dead and at least 13 others were injured. A second policeman later succumbed to his wounds on way to hospital in neighbouring Mymensingh.
One suspected attacker was killed in the exchange of fire with police at the blast site as roads in the area were cordoned off.
A woman was also killed during the shootout while she was witnessing the incident from the window of her house near the scene, the Prothom Alo newspaper reported.
Reports suggest that the local liberal Imam Maulana Masud, the Chairman of the Bangladesh Jamiyatul Ulama, may have been the target of the attack. Masud had recently issued a fatwa against terror, calling in unislamic.
Local reports said six to seven people led the attack with sharp weapons on policemen when they were frisking people entering the Eidgah ground.
Kishoreganj ASP Obaidul Hasan said the blasts spread panic among thousands who were beginning to gather near the ground but the prayers were uninterrupted.
The incident comes just after 6 days of an attack on a Dhaka cafe which killed over 22 people mostly foreigners including a 19-year-old Indian girl.
The Islamic State (IS) terror group had on Wednesday issued a new chilling video warning the Bangladesh government of more attacks in the country and across the world until Shariah law is established globally, saying last week's gruesome attack here was just "a glimpse".
The video message believed to be issued from Raqqa, the stronghold of the terror group in strife-torn Syria was released on YouTube.
Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina condemned the attack and called the terrorists enemies of Islam. "They aren't real followers of Islam. These enemies of Islam are using internet to spread their hate. These people spreading terror are educated - don't know how educated people are joining terror activities. Islam doesn't allow massacre of innocent people. These people are not following Allah's tenets," she said.
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