Italian priest shot in latest attack on foreigners in B'desh

An elderly Italian priest was today shot at by unidentified motorbike-borne assailants in Bangladesh today shot at, wounding him in the neck and skull, in the latest in a series of attacks on foreigners earlier claimed by the dreaded Islamic State.

The 57-year-old priest Piero Parolari, who came to Bangladesh 35 years ago, was cycling down to a Catholic missionary hospital in northern Dinajpur where he also worked as a doctor when the three men fired at him from close range and fled.

He fell down from his bicycle on being hit by bullets several times following which the locals rushed him to Dinajpur hospital.

"Doctors said his (Parolari's) condition is stable though he was hit on the neck" as assailants fired gunshots, a police officer told PTI.

The hospital later referred him to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in Dhaka after doctors found injury marks on Piero's scull following a CT scan, The Daily Star quoted Amir Ali, deputy director of Dinajpur Medical College Hospital, as saying.

He said that the priest had received injuries in his head but is out of danger now. Dinajpur district is some 414 kms north of here and Parolari has been carrying out missionary work and medical services among the poor for the last 10 years. Piero, also a pastor at a Dinajpur church, has been living alone at a house at Suihati Mirzapur in the town.

He is the second Italian national and the third foreigner to have been attacked in Bangladesh in the past three months.

The attack came after another Italian national, a 50- year-old aid worker Cesare Tavella, was shot and killed on September 28, and a similar attack just five days later on the outskirts of Rangpur city in which a 66-year-old Japanese farmer, Hoshi Kunio, was also killed by unidentified assailants.

Both the attacks on Tavella and Kunio were claimed by the dreaded Islamic State terror group though both the police and the Bangladesh government rubbished the claims, saying the assaults were being carried out by opposition forces that wanted to destabilise the country.

However, no individual or group has taken responsibility for today's attack. "It was a planned attack," The Guardian quoted Ruhul Amin, chief of Dinajpur police, as saying. "It was a continuation of the attacks being perpetrated across the country."

Tarun Kanti Halder, director of the hospital treating the priest said his condition was stable but it could deteriorate.

"Piero has nasal fractures which could lead to internal bleeding. His eyelid has also been badly bruised," Halder said, adding that a bullet is believed to have slipped past his head but it did not penetrate.