The Islamic State, on Saturday, claimed responsibility for the murder of a 60-year-old Hindu ashram worker, who was hacked to death on Friday while he was out for a morning walk.
60-year-old Nityaranjan Pandey of Thakur Anukul Chandra Satsanga Paramtirtha Hemayetpurdham ashram was attacked by several assailants, as reported by ASP (Sadar Circle) Selim Khan.
This happened just days after another priest was killed by suspected ISIS jihadists in the Muslim-majority nation, which has seen a string of brutal attacks by Islamists on religious minorities and secular activists.
On Sunday, a Christian businessman was hacked to death by unidentified machete-wielding men near a church, hours after the wife of a top anti-terror police officer was shot dead by religious extremists.
In February, militants stabbed to death yet another Hindu priest at a temple in the country, and shot and wounded a devotee who went to his aid.
In April, a liberal professor was similarly hacked to death by machete-wielding ISIS militants, who slit his throat near his home in Rajshahi city. In the same month, a Hindu tailor was also killed by ISIS 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 ISIS and al-Qaeda in the Indian Peninsula have claimed responsibility for some of the attacks, although the government continues to deny their presence in Bangladesh.
(This article has been edited for length.)
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