A Hindu priest and a Buddhist leader were brutally hacked to death by machete-wielding Islamic State terrorists while another Hindu man survived a bid on his life in Bangladesh, the latest in a series of vicious attacks on minorities in the Muslim-majority nation.
Shymanondo Das, in his mid 50s, was hacked by three motorcycle-borne assailants when he was plucking flowers for morning prayers at a garden in the Radhamodon Gopal Moth premises in Jhenaidah, said Jbahar Ali Sheikh, additional superintendent of police in Jhenidah.
“Three motorbike-borne assailants attacked (priest) Shymanondo Das with machetes....doctors declared him dead at Jhinaidah Sadar Hospital,” a police officer said.
“To make sure he died, they rained multiple blows on his head and neck with sharp weapons,” a police official said.
Three weeks ago, Jhenidah saw a similar killing of another Hindu priest. Das is the third Hindu priest to be killed this year by Islamists.
Officer-in-charge of the nearby police station, Hafizur Rahman said Das was the priest of Radhamodon Gopal Moth.
He said the killers quickly fled the scene, a pattern which was followed in previous several such Islamist attacks on secular or liberal activists and religious minorities.
The attack on Das came hours after the murder of Buddhist man Mong Shwe Lung Marma, 55, in Bandarban on Thursday night.
Marma, a farmer of the ethnic community and a former ward-level leader of the ruling Awami League, was killed by machete-wielding assailants at Samshankhola, said Abul Khair, officer-in-charge of Naikkhangchhari Police Station.
“He died on the spot.” In May, a Buddhist monk was brutally murdered in the area.
The murders of Hindu priest and Buddhist leader have been claimed by the IS.
‘IS fighters in Bangladesh killed a Hindu with blade weapons in Jhenaidah and murdered leader of a Buddhist party in Banderban,’ the IS-affiliated Amaq news agency said, according to US-based SITE Intelligence Group.
Earlier, suspected militants had killed a Hindu monastery worker in northwestern Pabna last month.
Meanwhile, another Hindu man survived a bid on his life after machete-wielding attackers who had entered his house fled when people rushed to help the victim in Banderban.
Babul Chakroborty, in mid 50s, raised alert when two attackers entered his house. The local people rushed to his help, forcing the attackers to flee. He was not injured.
On June 7, a 65-year-old Hindu priest was killed by three bike-borne assailants in the same district while he was on his way to a temple.
In February, militants stabbed to death a 50-year-old Hindu priest at a temple in Bangladesh’s Panchagarh district and shot and wounded a devotee who went to his aid.
A Christian businessman was hacked to death on June 5 by unidentified machete-wielding men near a church, hours after the wife of the top anti-terror police officer was shot dead by religious extremists.
In a development related to the murder of the police officer’s wife, police today nabbed two more suspects in the case.
Chittagong police said two suspects, including one of the killers, were arrested in connection with the killing of SP Babul Aktar’s wife Mahmuda Aktar Mitu.
In April, a liberal professor was brutally hacked to death by machete-wielding IS terrorists who slit his throat near his home in Rajshahi city.
In the same month, a Hindu tailor was also hacked to death by IS militants in his shop and Bangladesh’s first gay magazine editor was brutally murdered along with a friend in his flat in Dhaka by Islamists.
The IS and al-Qaeda in Indian Sub-Continent have claimed responsibility for most of the attacks even though the government has denied their presence in Bangladesh.
Police last month launched a nationwide anti-militancy week-long crackdown to halt these deadly attacks.
