ICC Note:
On Tuesday, another religious minority was murdered by Islamic extremists in Bangladesh. While in route to the Hindu temple where he served as a priest, an elderly Hindu priest was attacked by unknown extremists who cut the priest’s throat. The murder came only days after a Christian shopkeeper was hacked to death by extremists in northern Bangladesh. Since February, as many as 30 religious minorities, atheists, liberals, foreigners, and academics have been killed in similar fashions. ISIS has claimed responsibility for these attacks, but Bangladesh has been quick to deny the presence of ISIS within its borders.
6/8/2016 Bangladesh (Reuters) – Suspected militants in Bangladesh hacked an elderly Hindu priest to death on Tuesday, in what police suspected was the latest in a spate of attacks by Islamists on minority groups in the majority-Muslim country.
Three motorcycle-borne attackers slit the throat of Ananta Gopal Ganguly, 70, while he was en route to the temple he served in the district of Jhenaidah, about 100 miles (161 km) west of Dhaka, the capital, police said.
“They almost beheaded him before they fled the scene,” said police official Hasan Hafizur Rahman.
The attack bore the hallmarks of previous killings by Islamist militants. The government banned more than one person riding pillion on a motorcycle on Monday a day after the wife of a prominent anti-terror security official was shot dead by three suspected militants on a motorbike.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for killing Ganguly, the U.S.-based monitoring service SITE said, quoting the militant group’s Amaq news agency.
Rahman dismissed the group’s claim as “baseless”, saying it had no organizational base in Bangladesh and domestic militants were responsible.
A 60-year-old Christian grocer was also hacked to death after Sunday prayers in an attack claimed by Islamic State.
Bangladesh has not seen the sort of Islamist violence that has rocked Muslim Pakistan, or even the number of attacks that India has seen over the past decade or so.
Since February last year, militants have killed more than 30 people in Bangladesh, including members of religious minorities, liberal bloggers and academics.
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