A 68-year-old Christian convert was hacked to death in Bangladesh on Tuesday by three motorbike-borne unidentified assailants, the latest in a slew of attacks on minorities by Islamists in the Muslim majority country.
Hossain Ali, a freedom fighter and former inspector of family planning, was killed by unidentified miscreants in the northern Bangladeshi town of Kurigram Tuesday morning.
Ali’s body was recovered with his throat slit, police said. He was attacked by three unknown miscreants.
The miscreants riding a motorbike attacked Ali at about 7:00 AM, the Superintendent of Police in Kurigram said.
The attackers fled the spot after exploding two Molotov Cocktails, the official said.
Ali converted to Christianity ten years ago, the SP was quoted as saying by the local newspaper.
There have been systematic assaults in Bangladesh over the past six months specially targeting minorities, secular
bloggers and foreigners that have killed at least nine persons including two foreigners and wounded more than 100.
Last week a top Shia preacher and homoeopathic doctor was stabbed to death in southwestern Bangladesh in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
A Hindu head priest was hacked to death on 21 February by gun-and-cleaver wielding Islamists at a temple in northern Panchagarh district’s Debiganj Upazila.
In September last year, Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella was murdered by unidentified assailants in Dhaka, and within five days of that incident Japanese farmer Kunio Hoshi was killed. Both attacks were claimed by IS-affiliated militants.
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 IS has claimed a series of attacks against religious minorities in the Sunni-majority Bangladesh, which was declared officially secular after a deadly liberation struggle against Pakistan in 1971. PTI
