Policeman dead after Bangladesh Eid prayer attack

Dhaka : At least one policeman was killed and five others wounded Thursday following an explosion and a gunbattle near a mass prayer gathering to celebrate Eid in northern Bangladesh, police said.

Only days after 20 hostages were murdered by suspected Islamists in Dhaka, police and local media reported a new attack by jihadists near a prayer ground where at least 200,000 people were marking the end of Ramadan in the northern Kishoreganj district.

"One police constable is dead and at least five others were injured," Mahbub, a police officer in the district control room, told AFP, without giving details of how the policeman had died.

The private Somoy TV station broadcast footage of a gunfight between police and a group of attackers and reported the policeman had been hacked to death.