IS claims attack on Shiite mosque in Bangladesh

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for an attack on worshippers at a Shiite mosque in northern Bangladesh that killed one and wounded three others, the US-based monitoring organisation SITE said Friday.

The attackers entered the mosque in Shibganj, some 200 miles (125 kilometres) north of Dhaka, during early evening prayers on Thursday and opened fire on the gathered worshippers before fleeing.

Television footage showed the heavily guarded Shiite mosque with broken windows and blood stains on the floor.

Police said the muezzin had been killed and three worshippers wounded in the shooting, a rare attack on minority Shiite Muslims in the mainly Sunni nation.

The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity, said on its website that the Islamic State (IS) group had claimed responsibility in a message posted on Twitter.

Bangladesh authorities have previously said there is no evidence that IS militants are active in the country.

"We have picked up two Sunni locals for interrogation in connection to the shootout," Shibganj police chief Ahsan Habib told AFP early Friday of the mosque attack, adding no arrests had yet been made.

The bombing was believed to be the first attack on Shiites in Bangladesh, though banned Islamist militant groups have killed more than a dozen Sufi Muslims and attacked Hindus and Christians in the last two years.