An elderly Italian priest was today shot at by unidentified motorbike-borne assailants in Bangladesh, 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 . 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.