Dhaka: US ambassador in Dhaka Marcia Stephans Bloom Barnicat strongly condemned the killing of Bangladeshi imam and his assistant near a mosque in the borough of Queens in New York during a brazen attack carried out in broad daylight on Saturday.

‘We mourn the deaths of Imam Akonjee and Thara Uddin.  Violence can never be the solution’, the US ambassador post on her Tweeter account on Sunday afternoon.

Earlier, an imam, identified as Maulana Alauddin Akonjee, 55, moved to New York from Bangladesh two years ago, and his assistant, 64-year-old Thara Uddin, were shot just before 2:00 pm (1800 GMT) in the Ozone Park neighbourhood.

The working class area, on the border between Queens and Brooklyn, is home to many Muslim families from Bangladesh.

‘Both the Imam and other Bangladeshi national died following the incident,’ Shameem Ahsan, Consul General at Bangladesh Consulate in New York told UNB on Sunday.

The diplomat said he visited both the crime spot and Jamaica Hospital where the injured persons were sent right after the incident.

Ambassador Bernicat in a separate message said Imam Akonjee was a respected community leader.

‘We join all Bangladeshis to condemn the killings of Iman Akonjee and Thara Uddin, and honour what these two men stood for,’ she said.