Reuters
Dhaka

At least six people were injured, with three in a critical condition, after a series of bomb blasts yesterday at a Hindu religious gathering in northern Bangladesh, a police official said.
The attack follows the shooting and wounding of an Italian doctor working in the same region last month, and the earlier murders of an Italian and a Japanese citizen in separate attacks claimed by Islamic State (IS).
The latest incident occurred in Dinajpur district, 415km (260 miles) north of the capital Dhaka when a series of bombs exploded as hundreds of devotees attended a religious ceremony known as “Rushmela”, Abdul Mazid, the officer in-charge of Kahalur police station, said.
The attack came after recent threats to the temple’s priest, urging him not to organise any religious gatherings, Mazid said.
Five people had been detained for interrogation, he said.
Bomb attacks on Hindu religious gatherings are rare in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
Tensions have risen in Bangladesh since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered Islamist leaders suspected of atrocities during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan to be put on trial for war crimes.
Her rivals say Hasina is settling political scores by hunting down members of the Jamaat-e-Islami, an ally of the main opposition group head by former prime minister Khaleda Zia.
The latest conviction of former opposition minister Salauddin Quader Chowdhury for war crimes has reignited protests that the trials are
politically motivated.
US senator Patrick Leahy in a letter to the Bangladesh embassy in Washington DC said Chowdhury was denied the opportunity to present evidence to the war crimes tribunal that he was out of the country at the time of the alleged offences.
The United Nations (UN) has urged the Bangladesh authorities to ‘fully investigate’ the recent killing of a publisher and bring the perpetrators to justice.
“We clearly condemn the killing of the publisher we saw in Bangladesh, and we would very much call on the government to fully investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice,” UN resident co-ordinator in Bangladesh, Robert D Watkins, said quoting Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Earlier, the UN office in Bangladesh strongly condemned brutal killing of publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan and the continued violence against the online community.
The UN official said the killing must be condemned at all levels of political and religious leadership in order to prevent further attacks.
“The perpetrators must also be brought to justice and the authorities need to provide immediate protection to citizens thought to be at risk,” he said.
This murder and the violent assaults on Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, Tariq Rahim, and Ranadipan Basu are unacceptable attacks aimed to intimidate and restrict the right of individuals to express themselves freely, he said.