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Suspected militants decapitate top Hindu priest in Bangladesh

Sunday, 21 February 2016 2:21 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 21 February 2016 5:34 PM ]

A Bangladeshi policeman stands guard at the site where a top Hindu priest was killed in the remote northern district of Panchagarh, February 21, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Suspected militants have decapitated a prominent Hindu priest and injured two worshipers at a temple in Bangladesh.

Local Bangladeshi officials said on Sunday that assailants armed with cleavers and pistols beheaded the priest, Jogeshwar Roy, as he was organizing prayers at the temple in Debiganj area in the remote border district of Panchagar, which is located 494 km (308 miles) north of the capital, Dhaka.

“The priest was preparing for morning prayers when they pounced on him and slit his head from the body at the verandah of his home inside the temple,” said Shafiqul Islam, a government administrator, adding, “We recovered a blood-stained cleaver from the spot.”

At least two worshipers who attempted to stop the priest’s attackers were injured in the assault.

The assailants managed to flee the scene before security forces arrived.

Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies have launched a probe into the attack. No group or individual has so far claimed responsibility for the killing.

Over the past few months, Muslims, Hindus and Christians in the South Asian state have been targeted in several militant attacks, including ones claimed by Takfiri Daesh terrorists.

Bangladeshi police officials secure the area following a raid on a building housing militant suspects in Dhaka, December 24, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

On October 24, 2015, a bomb attack rocked Hussaini Dalan, the most important prayer and congregation site for Bangladesh’s Shia community in Dhaka. The attack left one person dead and dozens of others injured.

On November 26, 2015, one worshiper was killed and three others were injured in a shooting attack by Takfiri terrorists on Shia Muslims at a mosque in the town of Haripur in northern Bangladesh. Police said five assailants were involved in the attack.

A number of Bangladeshi writers, bloggers and intellectuals have also been killed in attacks in recent months.

Also, an Italian aid worker and a Japanese farmer were shot dead in Bangladesh last year.

Bangladeshi security forces have stepped up a hunt for militants behind the spate of recent attacks across the country of 160 million people.

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