Hindu tailor hacked to death in north Bangladesh

Dhaka, Apr 30: A Hindu tailor was hacked to death by unidentified men near his workplace today in north Bangladesh, the latest in a series of brutal attacks on intellectuals, activists and minorities in the Muslim majority country.

Nikhil Chandra Joarder, 50, a resident of the Dubail village under Gopalpur upazila of the Tangail district, was hacked to death this afternoon.

"Three young men riding a motorcycle have come to Nikhil's shop around 12 PM and called him to nearby road on which they hacked him.

The killers left the spot promptly after the incident," Gopalpur police station Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Abdul Jalil was quoted as saying by Dhaka Tribune. The attackers left a black bag at the spot, which contained three to four bomb-like objects, reports said.

Asked about the possible motive behind the attack, Jalil told reporters that a case was filed against Nikhil in 2012 for making a "derogatory" comment about the Prophet of Islam. He had been arrested for allegedly making the comments and then released. "It can be the reason for the murder," The Daily Star quoted him as saying.

There have been systematic assaults in Bangladesh in recent months specially targeting minorities, secular bloggers, intellectuals and foreigners. In the latest attack, a liberal professor was brutally hacked to death last Saturday by machete-wielding ISIS militants who slit his throat using sharp weapons and left him to die near his home in Rajshahi city.

Two days later on Monday, Bangladesh's first gay magazine editor was brutally murdered along with a friend in his flat in Dhaka by Islamists. Last year, four prominent secular bloggers were killed with machetes, one inside his own home.

PTI