DHAKA: Suspected Islamists carrying bombs and machetes launched another deadly attack in Bangladesh on Thursday, killing at least three people at a huge congregation marking the start of Eid.

Days after a mass murder of hostages in Dhaka, authorities said two policemen and a civilian were killed in explosions and gunfire near a prayer ground in the northern Kishoreganj district.

One of the attackers was shot dead and four of his suspected accomplices were arrested after hand bombs were hurled at police manning a checkpoint just outside the main prayer ground.

“Two policemen, an attacker and a woman who was shot during the (subsequent) gunfight were killed,” national police spokesman A.K.M. Shahidur Rahman said.

“Nine policemen were also injured. They are in a critical condition and have been shifted to a military hospital in Dhaka.”

Weapons recovered from the scene of the attack, close to where a quarter million people had been taking part in a post-Ramazan gathering, included a pistol and machete.

The prayer gathering in Kishoreganj is by far the biggest such congregation in Bangladesh.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came less than a week after Islamists killed 20 hostages and two policemen in a siege at a Western-style cafe in the capital Dhaka. Many of the victims, who included 18 foreigners, were hacked to death with machetes.

Bangladesh has been on heightened alert in the wake of the killings last Friday night and many Eid services included pleas from religious leaders for an end to the violence.

The cleric who led the Kishoreganj prayer, Maulana Fariduddin Masoud, has been an outspoken critic of a recent wave of attacks by Islamist extremists and he again condemned Thursday’s killings.

“The young men who think they will go to heaven (by carrying out such attacks) are wrong. They will go straight to hell,” Masoud said by phone.

Many of those who att­ended services in Dhaka could be seen weeping as clerics led prayers for a more peaceful and prosperous Bangladesh.

The biggest service in the capital was at the National Eidgah Maidan where more than 50,000 people, including President Abdul Hamid, took part in prayers under a giant canopy.

Police brought in scanners and sniffer dogs to check for bombs as crowds were forced to wait for up to an hour before being cle­ar­ed to enter the grounds where the service was held. No one was allowed to bring in bags.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2016