Qadiani mosque imam hacked

An imam of a mosque belonging to the Ahmadiyya community was stabbed by miscreants inside the shrine at  Khanpur village iunder Ishwarganj upazila of Mymensingh district on Monday night. The victim was identified as Mostafizur Rahman, 25, son of Abu Taleb of Kaharole upazila in Dinajpur district. Police said three madrasa students—Abdul Ahad Mohammadullah, 20, Johirul Islam, 18, and Elias Uddin, 20—had allegedly hacked the imam. The attackers are students of the Darul Sunnah Jamia Jaforia Madrasa in Ishwarganj. Abdul Ahad has been detained, said Badrul Alam Khan, officer-in-charge of Ishwarganj police station.  Last monday, a group of three to four miscreants had barged into the mosque around 8:30pm and hacked Mostafizur Rahman with sharp weapons, leaving him badly injured, the police officer said. The attack tok plave after the Maghrib prayer.
The critically injured imam was initially admitted to the Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH), but shifted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital early yesterday, sources said.
The imam has sustained injuries on the neck, back, hands and other parts of the body.
Hearing the imam’s screams, people rushed to the spot and caught Ahad. He was beaten up before being handed over to the police. He is now undergoing treatment at the MMCH.
Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, deputy inspector general (DIG) of police (Mymensingh range), Dr Akkas Uddin Bhuiyan, additional DIG, and Syed Nurul Islam, police super of Mymensingh, visited the spot and talked to locals yesterday.
Meanwhile AFP adds: Last year a suicide blast by a suspected Islamist extremist at an Ahmadi mosque in the northwestern town of Bagmara wounded three people.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the authorities blamed the homegrown militant group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), which is accused of killing scores of religious minorities including Hindus, Christians, Sufi Muslims and Shiites.
Since that attack police have stepped up security in Khanpur, which is home to around a dozen Ahmadi families.
Community spokesman Ahmad Tabshir Choudhury told AFP they had faced protests from Sunni Muslim villagers in recent months and when they set up the mosque.
Analysts say Islamist militants pose a growing danger in conservative Bangladesh and that a long-running political crisis has radicalised opponents of the government.
There are around 100,000 Ahmadis in Bangladesh, where they have faced attacks in the past and are often barred from setting up mosques. The worst such attack was in October 1999, when a bomb ripped through a Ahmadi mosque in southern city of Khulna, killing at least eight worshippers.
Police later blamed the Harkatul Jihad Al Islami (HuJI) for the attack. HuJI leader Mufti Abdul Hannan and two his aides were last month executed by the authorities for a bomb attack on the British envoy in a northeastern city in 2004.

Qadiani mosque imam hacked

An imam of a mosque belonging to the Ahmadiyya community was stabbed by miscreants inside the shrine at Khanpur village iunder Ishwarganj upazila of Mymensingh district on Monday night. The victim was identified as Mostafizur Rahman, 25, son of Abu Taleb of Kaharole upazila in Dinajpur district. Police said three madrasa studentsAbdul Ahad Mohammadullah, 20, Johirul Islam, 18, and Elias Uddin, 20had allegedly hacked the imam. The attackers are students of the Darul Sunnah Jamia Jaforia Madrasa in Ishwarganj. Abdul Ahad has been detained, said Badrul Alam Khan, officer-in-charge of Ishwarganj police station. Last monday, a group of three to four miscreants had barged into the mosque around 8:30pm and hacked Mostafizur Rahman with sharp weapons, leaving him badly injured, the police officer said. The attack tok plave after the Maghrib prayer. The critically injured imam was initially admitted to the Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH), but shifted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital early yesterday, sources said. The imam has sustained injuries on the neck, back, hands and other parts of the body. Hearing the imams screams, people rushed to the spot and caught Ahad. He was beaten up before being handed over to the police. He is now undergoing treatment at the MMCH. Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, deputy inspector general (DIG) of police (Mymensingh range), Dr Akkas Uddin Bhuiyan, additional DIG, and Syed Nurul Islam, police super of Mymensingh, visited the spot and talked to locals yesterday. Meanwhile AFP adds: Last year a suicide blast by a suspected Islamist extremist at an Ahmadi mosque in the northwestern town of Bagmara wounded three people. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the authorities blamed the homegrown militant group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), which is accused of killing scores of religious minorities including Hindus, Christians, Sufi Muslims and Shiites. Since that attack police have stepped up security in Khanpur, which is home to around a dozen Ahmadi families. Community spokesman Ahmad Tabshir Choudhury told AFP they had faced protests from Sunni Muslim villagers in recent months and when they set up the mosque. Analysts say Islamist militants pose a growing danger in conservative Bangladesh and that a long-running political crisis has radicalised opponents of the government. There are around 100,000 Ahmadis in Bangladesh, where they have faced attacks in the past and are often barred from setting up mosques. The worst such attack was in October 1999, when a bomb ripped through a Ahmadi mosque in southern city of Khulna, killing at least eight worshippers. Police later blamed the Harkatul Jihad Al Islami (HuJI) for the attack. HuJI leader Mufti Abdul Hannan and two his aides were last month executed by the authorities for a bomb attack on the British envoy in a northeastern city in 2004.