Gunmen open fire on Bangladesh Eid prayer gathering

Dhaka, July 07: Assailants have attacked a Bangladesh prayer gathering with guns and bombs, killing one policeman and injuring at least 10 others, during an Eid event on Thursday.

The perpetrators have been surrounded in a house, Dhaka range Deputy Inspector Mahfuzul Haque Nuruzzaman told CNN, after they originally attacked a gathering checkpoint near the event.

Police said one suspected attacker had also been killed in the incident.

More than 300,000 worshipers were praying in an area called Sholakia, 62 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Dhaka, when the attack began, Kishoregunj District Police Assistant Superintendent Shoaib Abu Shayal said.

Bangladeshi Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said no worshipers had been injured in the attack, which happened more than a kilometer away from the main congregation.

“It is not yet clear who was behind the attack but these terrorists are against the true religious practices of Islam and against the secular democratic government of Seikh Hasina,” he told CNN.

“Eid congregations all across Bangladesh were peaceful except this incident.”

The Eid congregation is the largest in Bangladesh.

A day before the event, police said they had put strict security measures in place, including uniformed and plain clothes officers as well as closed circuit security cameras.

Attendees would also be searched before they entered the premises.

It comes less than a week after 22 people were killed in a terrorist attack on a popular bakery in Dhaka, an act of violence which shocked Bangladesh due to its size and the middle-class backgrounds of the perpetrators.

The Eid-al-Fitr festival celebrates the end of Ramadan, when Muslim families break their fast and celebrate with their communities and families.