Suspected Islamist militants have stabbed to death a Hindu priest at a temple in Bangladesh and shot and wounded a devotee who went to his aid.

Police said the attack on Sunday was perpetrated by a local militant group, while Islamic State claimed responsibility in a statement issued via social media.

Bangladesh has experienced a wave of militant violence in recent months, including a series of bomb attacks on mosques and Hindu temples.

Some of the attacks have been claimed by Isis, which has said it was behind the killings of a Japanese citizen, an Italian aid worker and a policeman.

Five or six attackers cut the throat of the priest, Jogeshwar Roy, 55, as he was organising prayers at the Deviganj temple near Panchagar, 308 miles north of the capital, Dhaka, police said.

Police have arrested four people who are members of theJama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, police official Humayun Kabir said, rejecting the claim by Isis which was issued through the Telegram messaging app and Twitter.

“In a security operation facilitated by the almighty God, soldiers of the Caliphate liquidated the priest Jogeshwar Roy, the founder and the head of the Deviganj temple that belongs to the infidel Hindus,” the Isis statement read in Arabic.

“One of his companions was hurt after being targeted with light weapons in the area of Panchagar in Northern Bangladesh, and the Mujahideen returned to their positions unharmed, and all praise be to God.”

The devotee who tried to stop the priest’s attackers was shot in the leg before the group fled, Kabir said.

The government denies that Isis has a presence in the country of 160 million people. Police have blamed earlier attacks on homegrown Islamist militants.