A Christian grocer was hacked to death near a church today in northwest Bangladesh, police said, amid growing deadly attacks by Islamist militants on religious minorities and secular activists.
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“Sunil Gomes was hacked to death at his grocery store just near a church at Bonpara village”, said Shafiqul Islam, deputy police chief of Natore district that includes Bonpara.
The murder came just hours after the wife of a top anti-terror officer was brutally killed in the south-eastern city of Chittagong, by suspected members of a local banned extremist group.
Police said, the killing had similarities with previous militant attack against secular thinkers and writers.
Meanwhile, an alliance of progressive students at a rally on Dhaka University campus protested the murders and alleged that police failed to ensure the security of the people. Babul has led several raids on militant hideouts.
Mahmuda Aktar was taking her son to board the bus to school near her home in the southeastern city of Chittagong when three men on a motorcyle stabbed and shot her.
“Babul Akter is a skilled and honest officer who played vital roles in combating militants”, said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan. It was his investigations which led to the busting of a hideout of banned JMB and arrest of its military wing chief Mohamed Javed in October past year. “The bullet hit her on the left side of the head”, said Police Bureau of Investigation’s Additional Superintendent Bashir Ahmed.
CCTV footage reportedly shows three men on motorbikes repeatedly stabbing and then shooting her in front of her six-year-old son.
Statements like these do little to console Bangladesh’s religious and liberal minorities. Numerous previous attacks on atheist bloggers, online activists, gay rights advocates and minority groups were claimed by groups reportedly tied to the Islamic State or Al Qaeda on the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
“We do not rule out involvement of any militant groups or drug cartels”, said Paritosh Ghosh, a senior police official in Chittagong.
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The ISIS and Al-Qaeda in Indian Peninsula have claimed responsibility for some of the attacks although the government denies their presence in Bangladesh.
