Attendant of Hindu monastery hacked dead in Pabna

An attendant of a Hindu monastery was hacked to death by unknown assailants at Hemayetpur in Pabna sadar early Friday apparently in a sequel of recent killings.
The fresh victim Nityaranjan Pandey, 62, was the attendant of Sri Sri Anukul Chandra Monastery. He had been serving there for 40 years.
The latest murder bore the hallmark of previous attacks on secular bloggers, activists, intellectuals, spiritual leaders and religious minorities.
Pabna sadar police officer-in-charge Abdullah Al Hasan said that the victim was walking beside the monastery around 5:00am when assailants swooped on him.
They hacked his nape of neck and head indiscriminately, leaving him dead on the spot.
The monastery is close to the Pabna Mental Hospital and there is a makeshift police camp between the hospital and the monastery.
Police recovered the body and sent it to Pabna Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy, the OC said.
Pabna police super Alamgir Kabir visited the spot.
On Tuesday morning, Hindu priest Ananda Gopal Ganguli, 69, was hacked to death at remote village Karatipara in Jhenaidah sadar.
The killing of Anado Gopal took place just two days after suspected militants on a motorcycle hacked and shot to death the wife of a counter-terrorism unit police official Babul Akter in Chittagong on Sunday.
A Christian grocer was also hacked to death at Banpara in Natore on the same day. Earlier, three unidentified assailants slit throat of Jogeshwar Roy, 50, priest of Santagauriya Math, at Debiganj upazila in Panchagarh on February 21 and shot at his assistant Gopal Chandra Roy as he tried to resist the attackers.
More than 40 attacks on minority Sufi, Shia and Ahmadiyya Muslims, Hindus, Christians and foreigners took place in the past few months.
Islamist militancy suspects either were blamed or claimed responsibility for such killings and attacks.
US-based SITE Intelligence claimed that Islamic State group and ‘Bangladesh branch of Al-Qaeda’ had claimed responsibility for the killings and attacks.
The government, however, denied the presence of Islamic State and Al-Qaeda in the country and said that some home-grown militants were behind the crimes.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net