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Gunmen attack Shiite mosque in Bangladesh

November 28, 2015

Radical Islamists have claimed responsibility for an attack at a Shiite mosque in Bangladesh. One person was killed and three others wounded.

https://p.dw.com/p/1HDsu
Bangladesch Angriff auf Moschee in Dhaka Angehörige
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo

The attack was the latest in a wave of deadly assaults this year on foreigners, secular writers and members of the Shiite.

Radical Islamist groups have alarmed the international community and raised concerns that religious extremism is taking hold in a country largely seen as moderate with a Sunni majority.

The Islamic State as well as a local affiliate have claimed responsibility for the killings of two foreigners - an Italian aid worker and a Japanese agricultural worker - as well as for other attacks on the country's minority Shiite Muslim community.

However, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has repeatedly said that IS has no organizational presence in the country.

It has accused domestic Islamist groups along with the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its main ally, the Jamaat-e-Islami party, of carrying out the attacks to destabilize the South Asian nation for political gains.

av/sms (AP, AFP)

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