Three unidentified motorcyclists attacked and severely injured an Italian doctor in Bangladesh's Dinajpur town on Wednesday morning.
Fifty-seven-year-old Dr. Piero Arolari was admitted to the Dinajpur Medical College Hospital with head injuries.
The Daily Star quoted Amir Ali, the deputy director of the hospital, as saying that Dr. Arolari is stable and out of danger.
Dr. Arolari has been working at Mission Hospital in Dinajpur for the last 35 years.
Witnesses said that he was attacked near a BRTC bus stand area while going to his place of work, where he gives voluntary services.
He was attacked from behind, witnesses were quoted, as saying.
More From This Section
Dr. Piero is the third foreign national to be attacked by gunmen in Bangladesh in the last three months.
On September 28, another Italian citizen Cesare Tavella was killed in a similar attack in Dhaka's Gulshan diplomatic zone. Barely five days after his murder, a Japanese national, Kunio Hoshi, was gunned down in Rangpur on October 3.
The Islamic State reportedly claimed responsibilities for the murders.
Wednesday's attack comes even as the Washington-based opinion pollster Gallup has declared Bangladesh as one of the safest countries in the world.
The report says that Singapore with 89 points is the safest country in the world followed by Uzbekistan (88) and Hong Kong (87).
The worst ranking countries are Liberia with 40 points and Venezuela with 42 points.
Bangladesh with 78 points is one of the safest countries of the world, according to the report. Bangladesh is closely followed by the United States and Australia with 77 points. France, the recent epicenter of global attention, was ranked lower than Bangladesh with 75 points.