Bangladesh Bomb Attack: ISIS Claims Responsibility For Blasts That Killed 1, Injured Over 100 In Dhaka

Update: 6: 06 a.m. EDT -- Sunni hardline Islamic State group took responsibility for Saturday's bomb attacks on a Shiite Ashura procession in the Bangaldeshi capital of Dhaka that killed one and left over 100 injured, monitor group SITE said, according to Reuters. The monitor group quoted the militant group as saying "soldiers of the caliphate in Bangladesh" detonated explosive devices in Dhaka during "polytheist rituals."

Original story:

One person was killed and over 100 injured in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka early Saturday after unknown assailants threw home-made bombs at minority Shiite community’s procession, according to reports. About 25,000 people had gathered in the capital for Ashura procession, where Shiite Muslims mourn the death of a grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The incident occurred at Huseni Dalan, an important 17th century learning center for Shiites in the old part of Dhaka, the Associated Press (AP) reported. A 12-year-old boy was killed in the bomb attack and those wounded were treated, local police chief Aziz Ahmed told AP.

Five bombs were reportedly thrown at the procession and police seized two of those explosives. "We've recovered two unexploded bombs. These are like explosive devices and almost like grenades and fitted with batteries,” police official Azizul Haq told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Attacks on Shiites in Sunni-majority Bangladesh have been rare, and the minority community is not generally discriminated against. "Given the nature of attacks, I think this has been done to create chaos in the country. It is a sabotage," Dhaka's senior police official Asaduzzamn Mia said, according to AP.

The blasts took place weeks after an Italian aid worker and a Japanese national were shot dead in Dhaka and Rangpur district, about 208 miles north of the capital.