Dhaka – The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for bomb blasts near a suspected militant hideout in Bangladesh, according to a report, while police said on Sunday that the death toll from the explosion had risen to six.
Four civilians and two police officers were killed and nearly 50 others wounded in blasts that took place Saturday evening, officer Akhter Hossain told reporters.
Two civilians died at the scene while the others succumbed to their wounds at a hospital in north-eastern Bangladesh.
Members of Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion stand guart in front of the spot where a person died Friday near the entrance to Dhaka’s international airport. The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for a series of bomb blasts that left six dead on Saturday night. Suvra Kanti Das via ZUMA Wire Photo: Suvra Kanti Das/dpa
The blasts occurred nearly 500 metres away from a residential building in Sylhet city that had been the subject of a raid by army commandos.
An investigation was launched, city police chief Golam Kibria said. Kibria had said Saturday that it was not yet clear who detonated the bombs, but that a motorbike and explosives were seized at the scene.
Meanwhile, the US-based monitoring group SITE Intelligence said that Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the attack, citing Islamic State’s semi-official Amaq News Agency.
Police had kept the residential building in the north-eastern city cordoned off since Friday, when they were informed that suspected militants belonging to a banned Islamist group were present there.
The commandos evacuated 78 people from the five-storey building before they began the raid.
-dpa
