Hindu priest killed in Bangladesh

In yet another assault on minorities, a Hindu priest was today hacked to death by unknown men in a predawn attack on a temple in Bangladesh which also injured two devotees, police said.

They said the attack in northern Panchagarh district killed 50-year-old Jajneswar Roy and wounded two Hindu devotees at the temple premises while the assassins, presumed to be three in number, fled the scene on a motorbike.

Before fleeing the scene the killers fired gunshots and hurled crude bombs to avoid being chased injuring a neighbour who rushed to the spot to save the priest, Panchagarh police chief Giasuddin Ahmed said at the scene.

“The identity of the attackers or the motive behind the murder is not clear. Definitely we will launch an investigation and manhunt to track down the killers,” he said.

Sunni-majority Bangladesh has witnessed a series of systematic attacks on religious minorities in recent months that killed nine people including two foreigners and wounded nearly 100 others.

Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella was killed by unidentified assailants in Dhaka in September and and five days later Japanese farmer Kunio Hoshi was murdered. Both attacks were claimed by Islamic State-affiliated militants.

Also, moderate Sufi saint Khizir Khan, progressive book publisher Faisal Arefin Dipon, and a Sufi shrine worker were murdered while two Christian pastors, one an Italian doctor, narrowly escaped attacks.

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