\n Bangladesh star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has been given an armed bodyguard after he was threatened by Islamists for attending a Hindu ceremony in neighbouring India, the country's cricket board said Wednesday.\n<\/p>\n
\n The cricketer is the latest target of Islamists in Bangladesh, who have also held large anti-France rallies in recent weeks following president Emmanuel Macron's defence of the right to publish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 33-year-old sparked a social media storm in the Muslim-majority nation after attending a ceremony in Kolkata dedicated to a Hindu goddess on November 12.\n<\/p>\n
\n A man who threatened Shakib on social media for \"hurting religious sentiment\" was arrested by police on Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The threat is concerning,\" Bangladesh Cricket Board's chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury told reporters in Dhaka.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We took immediate measures and also informed the relevant security agencies. They are also taking necessary steps,\" Chowdhury added, without giving further details.\n<\/p>\n
\n He did not say if Shakib would receive round-the-clock protection.\n<\/p>\n
\n An armed bodyguard was seen beside Shakib during a training session in Dhaka on Wednesday ahead of a domestic Twenty20 tournament next week.\n<\/p>\n
\n The player on Monday publicly apologised for being at the event in Kolkata. Islamic preachers in Bangladesh say people should not attend the ceremonies of other faiths.\n<\/p>\n
\n Shakib is the International Cricket Council's top-ranked all-rounder in one-day internationals.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2015, he became the first cricketer to hold the ICC's top all-rounder ranking in the game's three formats -- Tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 internationals.\n<\/p>\n
\n Conservative Bangladesh has experienced increasing tensions between hardliners and secularists in recent years, suffering a spate of killings of atheist bloggers, religious minorities and foreigners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bangladesh star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has been given an armed bodyguard after he was threatened by Islamists for attending a Hindu ceremony in neighbouring India, the country's cricket board said Wednesday. The cricketer is the latest target of Islamists in Bangladesh, who have also held large anti-France rallies in recent weeks following president Emmanuel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-46024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n