Judge Noresh Chandra Sarker on Tuesday acquitted a sixth defendant belonging to the militant group, Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, in northern Bangladeshi district of Rangpur. Four of the defendants are in custody and a fifth man has been tried in absentia. Three masked men riding on a motorbike shot and killed while he was riding in a rickshaw to his grass farm in Rangpur, a northern Bangladesh city in October 2015. The area is 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital. The Islamic State group issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi postings online. The report could not be independently confirmed. Bangladesh has experienced a renewed level of Islamic militancy in recent years. Dozens of atheists, liberal writers, bloggers and publishers and members of minority communities and foreigners have been targeted and killed.