Dhaka, Nov. 27 (Reuters): The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Shia mosque in Bangladesh yesterday, killing a cleric and wounding three other people, the second attack on the country's tiny Shia community in a month.

Witnesses said three young men stormed into the mosque in northwestern Bogra district and shot at worshippers indiscriminately during prayers.

"The attackers entered the mosque and opened fire on the devotees after locking the main gate and then fled immediately after the shooting," police official Ahsan Habib said.

Two persons from two nearby villages had been picked up for questioning about the attack, another police officer Arifur Rahman said. Site monitoring service said that the IS had claimed responsibility for the attack, just as it did for the previous bombing on the biggest Shia shrine in the country.

Bangladesh has seen a rise in Islamist violence in recent months, with two foreigners, four secular writers and a publisher killed this year.

Australia said today that it had given permission to families of government staff posted in Bangladesh to return home, saying there was a threat to Australian and western interests in the country.

It also said in a travel advice posted on the foreign ministry's website that it planned to withdraw all Australian government-funded volunteers in Bangladesh by December 31.

"There is reliable information to suggest that militants may be planning to target Australian and western interests in Bangladesh," it said.

Last month Australia cancelled a cricket tour of Bangladesh although it played a soccer qualifier game in Dhaka on November 17.