Bangladesh: Hindu Preist Hacked To Death by Suspected Islamist Terror Group

Dhaka: A 45-year-old Hindu priest was hacked to death at Jhenaidah district in Bangladesh early on Thursday by three unidentified men. Shayamananda Das, who was the third priest at Radhamadan Gopal Bigraha Math, was suspected to be killed by Islamists. Das was an assistant of the head preist in the math in Bangladesh and used to help in conducting prayers in the temple.

“He was preparing morning prayers with flowers at the temple early in the morning and that time three young people came by a motor bike and killed him with machetes and fled away,” the Jhenaidah district administration chief noted.

The deputy police chief of Jhenaidah district asserted that Das was assaulted by the three attackers and ‘hacked on his neck three times.’ The body was found with a single stabbing mark in his head and was declared dead after taken to the hospital.

Shayamananda Das’s death is the latest amid the surging violence against minority Hindu people in Bangladesh, a Muslim majority country.

Reports are that on June 7, another Hindu priest, 70-year-old Ananda Gopal Ganguly, was killed in the same method in the same district. Later in June, a letter was forwarded to the Hindu priests of the Dhaka Ramakrishna Mission from the ISIS-backed terrorist group.

Unlike the earlier murders of bloggers, free-thinkers and people from religious minority group, which was immediately claimed by Islamist terrorist group, yesterday’s crime was not yet claimed by any of the prevailing group.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s has blamed the homegrown terrorist group for the murder, denying connection of IS and South Asian branch of Al-Qaeda.