Hindu priest brutally murdered in Bangladesh

An elderly Hindu priest was brutally killed on Tuesday by unidentified assailants in Bangladesh, police said.

Ananta Gopal Ganguly was attacked by a group of three people armed with knives while he was walking through a rice field to his temple in Khulna province's Jhenaidah district, according to the area's police chief, Ahsan Azizur Rahman.

"At least three attackers on a motorcycle approached him, stabbed him in the head and fled. We haven't found any witnesses," he told EFE, adding that "Ganguly was the priest of an ancient temple."

The priest had not received any death threats in the past, Rahman said.

"We don't want to point at any group yet, but this is the second such incident in the area this year. In January, a Christian convert was stabbed some 20 km from this place," the police chief said.

Eleven people have been killed in a similar manner in various parts of Bangladesh since April.

The victims include a secular activist, a professor accused of atheism, two gay activists, two Hindu merchants, a Sufi spiritual leader and a homeopathic doctor, accused of promoting Christianity.

Some of the attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State and others by an Al Qaeda branch in the Indian subcontinent.

Nearly 90 percent of the 160 million people of Bangladesh are Muslims, while Hindus are the main minority group, in addition to smaller communities of Christians and Buddhists.

--IANS

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