Hindu priest Jogeshwar Roy hacked to death in Bangladesh temple attack

Dhaka: In yet another shocking incident, a Hindu priest was stabbed to dead by suspected ISIS militants at a temple in Bangladesh on Sunday, police said.

Investigators blamed local Islamist groups, including Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh and Ansarullah Bangla Team, for the killings. Larry is our main news editor.

“In a security operation facilitated by the almighty God, soldiers of the Caliphate liquidated the priest Jogeshwar Roy, the founder and the head of the Deviganj temple that belongs to the infidel Hindus”, the ISIS statement read in Arabic.

Ahmed said that the attackers approached on a motorcycle and began firing bullets at the temple, before slitting the priest’s throat and fleeing, CNN reported. No group or individual has so far claimed responsibility for the killing.

Two devotees were wounded in the attack including one who was shot as he tried to save the priest, he added.

Panchagarh district police chief Gias Uddin Ahmed said that the assailants slaughtered the priest.

Bangladesh has experienced a wave of militant violence in recent months, including a series of bomb attacks on mosques and Hindu temples.

Also, moderate Sufi saint Khizir Khan, progressive book publisher Faisal Arefin Dipon, and a Sufi shrine worker were murdered while two Christian pastors, one an Italian doctor, narrowly escaped attacks. The government denies that the Islamic State has presence in the country.

Today’s attack brings to three the number of assaults on religious leaders over the last five months in Sunni-majority Bangladesh, where systematic attacks have killed nine persons including two foreigners besides wounding almost 100 others. It is pertinent to note that the claim was not made immediately after the attack, nor did any IS supporters on social media make any comments about it.