Hindu priest killed in Bangla

ISIS claims responsibility; ‘ high ranking’ millitants killed in crackdown

Dhaka: A Hindu priest was killed in Bangladesh on Tuesday by three assailants who nearly severed his head. He was the second priest to be killed this year in Bangladesh, which has seen a string of attacks on minorities.

Dhaka, June 7: A 70- yearold Hindu priest was on Tuesday hacked to death in Bangladesh by three suspected Islamic State jihadists who nearly severed his head, the second priest from the community to be killed this year in the Muslim- majority nation which has seen a string of brutal attacks by Islamists on minorities and secular activists.

Ananda Gopal Ganguly was attacked at around 9.30 am by three bikeborne men who slit his throat with sharp- edged weapons in the western Jhinaigah district’s Noldanga village, assistant superintendent of police Gopinath Kanjilal said, adding that suspected militants carried out the murder. “As it appears Ganguly was killed by the militants as it matches the pattern they followed previously,” Jhinaidah’s police chief Altaf Hossain said.

“He was an old ordinary man who was known little beyond the neighbourhood and we found no clue as well that he had enmity with anyone. The circumstances led us to point our figure to militants as we launched the investigation initially,” Mr Kanjilal said.

The police said it has recovered the body and sent it for an autopsy. An investigation was launched into the incident.

The near- decapitated body of the priest was discovered by farmers at a

Three JMB members were killed in crackdown launched by the Bangladesh police on Tuesday

farmland near his home.

Meanwhile, ISIS claimed responsibility for the killing of the Hindu priest.

The terror group said it “assassinated” the priest while he was going for prayers, the SITE monitoring group quoted the terror group’s Amaq news agency.

Ganguly, who was a priest at the Noldanga temple in Sadar upazila, was on his way to the temple riding a bicycle to offer prayers when the unidentified assailants struck. They first shot him and then hacked him to death to make sure that he was dead.

Launching a massive crackdown on extremists after a spate of attacks, the Bangladesh police on Tuesday gunned down three suspected Islamists.

The three were operatives of the outlawed Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh ( JMB) outfit, which was targeted by superintendent of police Babul Aktar whose wife was brutally killed by the militants on Sunday.

As a government minister tried to portray the recent attacks as part of a conspiracy involving Israel’s Mossad spy agency, security forces waged deadly gunbattles with members of a homegrown jihadist group.

Two “high- ranking” members of the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh were shot dead in a battle in Dhaka and another was killed in a northwestern district, the police told AFP.

The two JMB members killed in the capital had roles “in most of the recent attacks” including the bombing of a Shia mosque and the murder of a liberal professor, said deputy commissioner of police.

The third victim was killed in another gunfight in the town of Godagari in the north- western district of Rajshahi.