Bangladesh blast, gunbattle leave 2 dead during Eid prayers

In this March 25, 2016, file photo, Bangladeshi policemen stand guard outside Bangladesh national mosque as members of various Islamic political groups and other Muslims attend Friday prayers before a protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The July 1, 2016 deadly attack, the worst in a wave of violence waged by radical Islamists in recent years, speaks to a deeper divide within the nation of 160 million – one that has pitted secularists against those yearning for Islamic rule since the country won independence from Pakistan in a bloody war in 1971. AP FILE PHOTO

NEW DELHI — A group of suspected radical Islamists hurled homemade bombs and engaged in a gun battle with police guarding Eid prayers Thursday morning in Bangladesh. One officer and one suspected militant were killed, while several others were injured, officials said.

At least one of the bombs exploded during the prayer meeting, where hundreds of thousands of people had gathered in the district of Kishoreganj, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital of Dhaka, for the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan.

After the blast erupted, police fired on the attackers and killed one of them, assistant police superintendent Tofazzal Hossain said.

The country’s information minister said the target of the attack had been the police convoy patrolling the religious gathering.

“Up to nine police constables have been injured in the attack,” Minister Hasanul Haq Inu told Indian broadcaster CNN-News 18.

The violence comes just days after the country suffered a deadly hostage crisis in which 28 were killed, including 20 hostages, two policemen and six of the attackers. It was the worst in a recent wave of extremist attacks in Bangladesh targeting atheists, religious minorities and other so-called enemies of Islam.

READ: Stop killing in name of Islam — Bangladesh PM

Many of the attacks, including the hostage taking, have been claimed by the Islamic State group. On Wednesday, the extremist Sunni Muslim group released a video warning of more attacks to come in Bangladesh, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity online.

The Bangladeshi government, which has been cracking down on extremist groups for several years, has dismissed the IS claims as opportunistic, and says none of the attacks have been orchestrated from abroad.

Instead, the government blames homegrown militant groups of waging the violence in order to create political chaos in the country and undermine the secular government.

READ: Bangladesh official says 20 hostages were killed