Ahmadiyya mosque imam hacked in Mymensingh

By Ashraf Uddin Sijel in Dhaka Tribune, May 9, 2017
Mymensingh: The imam of an Ahmadiyya mosque in Mymensingh was critically injured after being hacked inside the mosque by a group of three men in a suspected militant attack Monday night.
Imam Mostafizur Rahman, 35, of Khanpur mosque in Ishwarganj area was hacked by the assailants indiscriminately with sharp weapons inside the mosque around 9pm, after the end of Esha prayers. The attackers tried to flee as locals came to his rescue.
The imam was first taken to the Upazila Health Complex and then shifted to Mymensingh Medical College as his condition deteriorated. He was later shifted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical condition around 5am on Tuesday.
One of the three attackers, Ahad, has been detained by the locals. He is also undergoing treatment at the hospital under police custody. Ahad hails from Kalmakanda of Netrokona.
Police Superintendent Syed Nurul Islam visited the injured imam at the hospital around 10:30pm. He hoped that the two others would be arrested soon. He, however, did not say anything about the motive of the attack.
OC Badrul Alam of Ishwarganj police could not be reached over the phone.
Mostafizur hails from Dohanda village under Kahalu Upazila in Dinajpur. He has been working at the mosque for the last two years.
Earlier, members of militant group New JMB (a new faction of banned outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh) carried out a suicide attack on an Ahmadiyya mosque in Rajshahi’s Baghmara on December 25, 2015. Ten devotees were injured in the bomb attack. International terrorist group Islamic State claimed responsibilities.
The suicide bomber, Md Tarek Aziz alias Musa, was killed in the explosion while Jamal Uddin, who helped Aziz to carry the bomb inside the mosque, was killed in a shoot-out at Godagari of Rajshahi on June 7, 2016, a day after his arrest.
New JMB has carried out most of its attacks with the help of three-man teams.
The Ahmadiyya community people are termed anti-Islamic by local Islamist groups including Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam. Hefazat urged the government to ban Ahmadiyyas in its 13-point demands placed in 2013.
Ahmadiyya supporters and mosques have come under violent attacks in different places across the country over the last few decades.http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2017/05/09/ahmadiyya-mosque-imam-hacked-3-man-team/