A knife-wielding man has inflicted fatal injuries on a security guard at the biggest airport in Bangladesh and wounded several others after paramilitary officers barred him from going through to departures, police say.
The attack was carried out on Sunday at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, when the assailant went on and indiscriminately attacked guards and people around him after officials asked for his travel documents at the entry to the departure lounge, Nazrul Islam, a police sub-inspector said.
According to additional deputy commissioner of police Rafiul Alam, the man, whose identity has not been disclosed yet, wounded at least three others, including another Ansar (paramilitary security guard), who were taken to a nearby hospital.
Alam added that the attacker, who identified himself as a cleaner, had been taken into custody following the deadly assault. It is not clear, however, that whether he had ties with extremist groups active in the country.
Bangladesh security forces have launched a major crackdown on suspected militants, particularly those of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), since a raid on a café in the capital Dhaka in early July, where more than 20 people, mainly foreign hostages, were killed.
In the wake of the massacre, the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group claimed responsibility for the carnage but Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government strongly dismissed the claim, arguing that Daesh had no presence in the Muslim-majority country. However, according to security forces, the scale and sophistication of the attack suggested that transnational criminal networks had been involved.
Bangladesh has also been reeling from a wave of recent attacks by militants, with targets including foreigners, members of religious minorities, rights activists and bloggers.
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