Islamic State (Isis) militants have claimed responsibility for a blitz attack on a police checkpost by a group of unidentified attackers on Wednesday, reports said.
A statement published later in the evening on Twitter by the Muslim radical group said that its men raided a murtadeen (apostate) police check point, killing one and injuring another.
A group of officers, part of an Industrial Police Unit, were setting up a check post at at the Ashulia area on the Dhaka-Tangail highway when as many as eight unidentified men attacked them with knives.
"They stabbed two police constables with big knives. One of the constables was stabbed in his neck and he died after he was brought to a nearby hospital," assistant superintendent of police Mosfequr Rahman told AFP.
The attackers then fled on motorbikes, after firing shots in the air. Local tv reports said that the attackers chased the two injured policemen even as they ran for safety into a restaurant and stabbed them multiple times.
Bangladesh has witnessed a spate of attacks in recent months, and just days back a publisher was hacked to death. An Italian aid worker and a Japanese farmer were also killed by Muslim radicals.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, referring to the hardline Islamic terror groups, told media earlier in the day "They are carrying out these (killings), sometimes taking the name of JMB (Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh), sometimes Harkat ul Jihad (Al Islami), sometimes Ansarullah Bangla Team and sometimes Isis (Islamic State)."
