The Islamist militant group ISIS has claimed responsibility for a gun attack on a Shia mosque in Bangladesh in which one person was killed and three injured.
A statement posted on an Twitter account associated with ISIS’ Bangladesh offshoot said that the site was chosen by the extremist Sunni group because of sectarian rifts between.
“[T]he soldiers of the caliphate targeted a place of worship for the apostates,” the statement read.
According to police, five gunmen stormed the mosque and fired on worshippers at the Haripur village in the country’s north.
“The attackers entered the mosque and opened fire on the devotees after locking the main gate and then fled immediately after the shooting,” said Ahsan Habib, a police official.
Two suspects have been detained by police for questioning.
ISIS also claimed responsibility for attacks on Shia worshippers in Bangladesh’s capital city Dhaka last month. One person was killed and dozens wounded in the series of bombings during a Shia procession through the city.
Government officials have repeatedly refuted the claims that ISIS is operating in the country. That’s despite a rising tide of extremist attacks on foreign nationals and atheist writers in recent months.
Four atheist bloggers and publishers were brutally hacked to death by machetes in Bangladesh over the course of the last year.
“I think [the attacks] very much speak to the rising tension in the country to define its ideology,” Sumit Galhotra of the Committee to Protect Journalists told ThinkProgress earlier this year. “A great amount of tension exists between secularists and Islamists and that’s very much coming to the fore now.”
While the government is technically secular, some have accused officials of attempting to placate extremists. Even so, the country’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina launched a crackdown on militant groups last month.
Still, many believe the move is an effort to target her political opponents amid under the guise of combatting militancy.
Many governments still question the country’s ability — or perhaps willingness — to snub out extremist elements even as targeted attacks there shocked many in the country.
In October, a Japanese and an Italian man were killed amid heightened fears of attacks on embassies in the country.
Amid persistent threats of attacks on foreigners in the country, the Australian government gave permission to families of government staff posted in Bangladesh to return home.
“There is reliable information to suggest that militants may be planning to target Australian and western interests in Bangladesh,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a travel advice update posted on its website on Friday.
Even amid such threats and attacks, the country’s police have issued an all out refusal to consider ISIS as a culprit.
“We have spoken to the media before, categorically denying ISIS’s claims in the past,” said Muntasirul Islam, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police. “Investigating agencies did not find any relations with the murder of bloggers and foreign nationals to outside terrorist organizations.”
Such words are little hope to those suffering amid growing intolerance.
Asif Mohiuddin, a blogger was stabbed outside of his office in 2013 and later arrested by government, said he feels threatened by Islamists and the government alike.
“The picture is very clear,” he said. “The government is on their side,” he said referring to Islamist extremists.