A Hindu ashram worker was killed in Bangladesh while out on a morning walk on Friday, four days after a Hindu priest was murdered in similar fashion. Police said Nityaranjan Pandey, 60, had been working at the Thakur Anukul Chandra Satsanga Paramtirtha Hemayetpurdham ashram in Pabna for the past 40 years. He was set upon by an unidentified group of assailants, and no group has claimed to be behind the murder yet, PTI reported.
Pandey’s death is the latest in a string of attacks targeting religious minorities in the Muslim-majority nation. On Tuesday, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the murder of Ananta Gopal Ganguly, a 65-year-old priest who was on his way to a temple.
There have been around 10 killings of the kind over the past 10 weeks. Last week, a Christian businessman was hacked to death after Sunday prayers near a church in northwest Bangladesh. In another incident, the wife of a senior policeman was gunned down by religious extremists. Another Hindu shop owner was also hacked to death outside his store in Gaibandha district in May.
Although the Islamic State has said it was behind several of the attacks, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government has consistently denied the presence of the terror outfit in Bangladesh.
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