11 held in connection with attack
Police rounded up 11 people, including the district Jamaat secretary general, in Wednesday's overnight drive in different areas of Dinajpur town over the shooting of Italian doctor-cum-pastor Piero Parolari.
Cops, however, could not confirm the motive behind the attack.
The 11 were shown arrested in a case filed with Dinajpur Sadar Police Station on Wednesday night by Father Silas of Dinajpur Catholic Church, according to police.
The complainant in the case statement said some unidentified criminals shot and wounded Parolari on Wednesday morning when he was on his way to Dinajpur Medical College Hospital from his residence.
Meanwhile, the US-based SITE Intelligence Group in a post uploaded on its website yesterday said, “The Islamic State (IS) claimed three attacks in Bangladesh including the assassination attempt on Italian priest Piero Parolari.”
Yesterday, police produced the arrestees before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court in Dinajpur and sought remand for Mahbubur Rahman Bhutto, secretary general of district Jamaat, in custody for five days.
The court granted the remand prayer of police for a day and sent the 10 others to jail, said investigating officer of the case Bazlur Rahman, also a sub-inspector of Detective Branch of police in Dinajpur.
The DB was tasked with the investigation of the case, said Ruhul Amin, Dinajpur superintendent of police.
Teams of DB, Criminal Investigation Department and Police Bureau of Investigation were working separately on the case, he added.
On Wednesday, injured Parolari was first taken to Dinajpur Medical College Hospital. Later that day, he was flown to Dhaka and admitted to Combined Military Hospital.
The Italian pastor has been in Bangladesh for three decades. He serves St Vincent Missionary Hospital in Dinajpur and a local catholic mission called Parish Suihari.
The 57-year-old is the third foreigner and the second Italian to have come under attack from unidentified assailants in the country in the last one and a half months.
Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella was shot dead by criminals in the capital's Gulshan on September 28. Five days later, Japanese national Kunio Hoshi was gunned down in Rangpur.
On October 5, pastor Luke Sarkar of a Pabna church survived an attempt on his life by three youths who tried to slit his throat with a knife at his house.
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