Man hacked to death near church in Bangladesh attack

A Christian grocer was hacked to death near a
church on Sunday in northwest Bangladesh,
police said, amid growing deadly attacks by
Islamist militants on religious minorities and
secular activists.
Unidentified attackers murdered the 65-year-old
in the village of Bonpara, home to one of the
oldest Christian communities in Muslim-majority
Bangladesh.
"Sunil Gomes was hacked to death at his grocery
store just near a church at Bonpara village,"
Shafiqul Islam, deputy police chief of the
surrounding Natore district, told AFP.
The killing came just hours after the wife of a
top anti-terror officer was brutally murdered in
the southeastern city of Chittagong by suspected
members of a banned local extremist group.

Bangladesh is reeling from a wave of murders of
secular and liberal activists and religious
minorities that have left more than 40 people
dead in the last three years.

Authorities have blamed homegrown Islamists
for the attacks, which have spiked in recent
weeks, rejecting claims of responsibility from
the Islamic State group and a South Asia branch
of Al-Qaeda.

Bangladesh's secular government accuses
political rivals of trying to destabilise the
country. Experts say a government crackdown on
opponents, including a ban on the largest
Islamist party following a protracted political
crisis, has pushed many towards extremism.

Another officer, Inspector Abdur Razzak, said the
motive for the latest killing was unclear, but it
was similar to those on Hindus and members of
other religious minorities in recent months.

An Italian-born Catholic priest was shot and
critically injured in the north last year -- an
attack later claimed by Islamic State. Unknown
attackers also tried to slit the throat of a pastor
in another northwestern town.

• 'Innocent man' -
  Father Bikash Hubert Rebeiro, from the Bonpara
  Catholic church, told AFP that Gomes, whose
  brother is also a priest, used to work as a
  gardener at the church and was "known for his
  humility".

"He attended Sunday prayers at my church and
then went to his grocery store. The next thing we
know he was hacked to death. I can't imagine
how anyone can kill such an innocent man,"
Rebeiro said.

Hours before Gomes was killed, three
unidentified men stabbed and then shot
Mahmuda Begum in the head as she walked her
son to a school bus stop near her home, said
Chittagong deputy police commissioner Moktar
Hossain.

Begum was the wife of Babul Akter who led
several high-profile operations against the
banned Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)
militant group in Chittagong in recent months.
"We suspect JMB or local Islamist extremists for
the attack. Akter led successful anti-militant raids
in Chittagong in which several JMB men were
arrested," Hossain said.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said the
attack was revenge for Akter's role in tracking
down militants.

"Babul Akter is a skilled and honest officer who
played vital roles in combating militants. That's
why they killed his wife as they could not find
him," Khan told AFP.

A Hindu trader was hacked to death last week,
days after a homoeopathic doctor was
slaughtered along with a Buddhist monk. In all at
least 10 people were killed by suspected Islamist
militants in the last ten weeks.