An Italian priest has been shot in Bangladesh, two months after another Italian was targeted in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.
Fr. Piero Arolari, 57, suffered head injuries but is in a stable condition, reports AP.
He was attacked by three men on motorcycles, as he cycled towards the mission hospital where he has worked for 35 years in Dinajpur, 260 miles north of Dhaka.
This is the latest in a series of attacks on foreign nationals in Bangladesh.
In September, Caesar Tavella, an Italian aid worker for church-linked Dutch NGO was killed in Dhaka; Islamic State claimed responsibility. IS also claimed responsibility for the murder of Japanese businessman Kunio Hoshi, 66, who was killed in Rangpur, 200 miles north of Dhaka. However, the government denies that IS has a presence in the country.
A week after Tavella died, a local priest survived what appeared to be a pre-meditated attack at his home.
Father Luke Sarkar said that two weeks earlier, two youths had phoned him to say they were interested to hear his sermons.
Three youths arrived, unannounced, by motorcycle at his home in Pabna, in the east of the country, then tried to slit his throat with a knife.
Five men were arrested after the attack. They were all suspected members of a banned Islamist group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahedin Bangladesh.
A year ago, hundreds of extremist Islamists attacked a Christian school in Bangladesh, which welcomes children of all faiths, in response to locals who were outraged by rumours stating the school was forcing Muslim children to convert to Christianity.
