Bangladesh: Christian family attacked with homemade bombs

A Christian family were attacked with crude bombs at their home in Bangladesh on Tuesday morning.

Mostaque Chowdhury/ Wikimedia Commons

Unidentified assailants targeted the family's house in a Christian-majority area of Baghadanga Girjapara with homemade bombs.

One man, Alam Mondol, 45, was injured outside his house and another man was wounded as he and other local villagers tried to force the attackers away.

"Mondol was injured after [wooden] splinters hit his left hand and hip," local police chief Liaqat Hossain told AFP.

"Both the injured are Christians."

Another officer, Chuadanga district chief Rashidul Hasan, said they suspect the attackers were trying to rob the family, as they "tried to break into the house and demand money."

This is the latest in a string of attacks on religious minorities in the Muslim-majority country.

A recent spate of extremist violence has challenged Bangladesh's status as a moderate Muslim country. ISIS and al-Qaeda have claimed a series of attacks on atheists and religious minorities since September.

Last week an English professor, Rezaul Karim Siddiquee, was hacked to death by Islamic extremists. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Similarly, ISIS claimed to have killed Christian convert Hossain Ali, 68, on March 22 while he was walking in the town of Kurigram, saying it was a "lesson to others".

The government has denied that either of the groups are behind any of the recent attacks. It insists they have no known presence in the country and has blamed home-grown militants for the violence.

At least five Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen fighters have been killed in shootouts since November, as security forces have stepped up a crackdown on militants seeking to make Bangladesh a Sharia-based state.

Christians and Hindus make up just 10 per cent of the country's population of mainly Sunni Muslims.