Italian doctor stabbed in latest attack on foreigners

An Italian doctor working as a missionary was stabbed in the neck during an attack by three assailants in northern Bangladesh on Wednesday and was admitted to hospital, police said, reporting the latest in a series of attacks on foreigners.

The assault on the 60-year-old man, identified as Father Pero, in the Muslim-majority country follows the killing of another Italian and a Japanese citizen in attacks claimed by Islamic State at the end of September and early October.

The latest incident took place in Dinajpur district, 414 kilometers (258 miles) north of the capital Dhaka, where Father Pero has been carrying out missionary work and medical services among the poor for the last 10 years.

The victim was stabbed in the back of the neck during the assault and has been shifted to a hospital in Dinajpur town, according to Abdul Khaleque, officer in charge of Dinajpur Sadar police station.

Dharani Kanto, an auto rickshaw driver, told Reuters that he had found the wounded missionary and taken him to the hospital.

"I was returning from the missionary after dropping children at the missionary school and found the priest lying unconscious, covered in blood. Noone was attending to him, so with the help of two other people I rushed him to the hospital," Kanto said.

The attackers fled on a motorcycle, and fired shots to frighten off people chasing them, a senior police official said.

Bangladesh has suffered a rising tide of Islamist violence over the past year. Four online critics of religious militancy have been hacked to death, among them a U.S. citizen of Bangladesh origin.

And, on Sept. 28, an Italian aid worker was shot in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter by three gunmen on a motorcycle. A few days later a Japanese man was also shot.

Islamic State also claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Dhaka last month that killed one person and wounded dozens.

The government has rejected the Islamic State claims of responsibility for the attacks, and has blamed the rising violence on political opponents.

Humayun Kabir, a Deputy Inspector General of police for the northern region told Reuters that security in the area had been tightened. He linked the attack on the Italian missionary to death sentences handed down to the leaders of two opposition parties who have been found guilty of committing war crimes during the 1971 war of independence.