Hindu priest stabbed, injured in Bangladesh

Dhaka, Jul 2: A 48-year-old Hindu priest has been stabbed and critically injured by unidentified assailants in Bangladesh, a day after a Hindu priest and a Buddhist leader were brutally hacked to death by machete-wielding ISIS militants.

Bhabasindhu Roy of the Sri Sri Radha Gobinda Temple in Satkhira district was attacked inside the temple compound as he slept, police said today. Seven to eight assailants knocked at the door of the priest's house.

When he opened the door thinking it was the night guard, they stormed into in the house and attacked him with sharp weapons in his chest and back. His condition is critical, police was quoted as saying by the Daily Star.

The attackers managed to escape before anyone managed to reach the spot, police said quoting Samitra Bor, wife of the victim. The attack came just hours after gunmen stormed a restaurant in Dhaka's high-security Gulshan diplomatic area and took 20 people hostage, including several foreigners.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant in which two policemen were killed and 30 injured.

Yesterday, a Hindu priest and a Buddhist leader were brutally hacked to death by ISIS militants while another Hindu man survived a bid on his life in Bangladesh.

Shymanondo Das, in his mid 50s, was hacked by three motorcycle-borne assailants when he was plucking flowers for morning prayers at a garden in the Radhamodon Gopal Moth premises in Jhenaidah, police had said. Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation, is reeling from a wave of murders of secular and liberal activists and religious minorities.

Victims of the attacks by suspected Islamists have included secular bloggers, gay rights activists and followers of minority religions including Hindus, Christians and Muslim Sufis and Shiites.

PTI