NEW DELHI: India said it has raised the death threat from suspected Islamic State militants to a priest at the Ramakrishna Mission, with Bangladesh, and has been assured "full support and protection" also beefing up security at the ashram premises.
India's External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said that the Indian High Commission in Dhaka "had contacted both the Bangladesh police and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs". "We are also in direct contact with the Ramakrishna Mission in Dhaka," Swarup said. He added that the Bangladesh has also strengthened police presence around the office of the Indian spirituality movement. The letter, as per a media report, reads, "You are Hindus, Bangladesh is an Islamic country. You cannot preach Hindu religion in the country. Go to India. Otherwise, you will be hacked to death."
The country has seen quite a number of attacks on minority groups leading to a nationwide crackdown on the militants. The most recent attack was on a Hindu ashram volunteer Nityaranjan Pandey who was associated with the Sree Sree Thakur Anukulchandra Satsang Ashram. Islamic State-affiliated militant groups have claimed most of the killings even as the Bangladesh government brushes aside their presence in the region. Officials say the attacks are carried out by homegrown militants, and have arrested 12,000 people just this year.
The suspected Islamists have killed secular activists, Bloggers, Hindus and other minorities across the country. Some of them were linked with outlawed Jamaatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh.
Assassination attempt on Hindu lecturer
In another case, a Hindu lecturer survived an assassination attempt when suspected Islamists barged into his home and hacked him with lethal weapons, critically injuring him. Ripon Chakrabarty, a 50-year-old Mathematics lecturer at the Nazimuddin Government University College, was hacked with lethal weapons by the attackers who stormed his residence in Madaripur in southwestern Bangladesh, police said.
Chakrabarty, who was hacked by three assailants in his head, neck and shoulders, raised an alarm, prompting local residents to grab one of the attackers while others fled. "The detained attacker is now being questioned in our custody. We suspect he could be a member of a militant group," Madaripur police superintendent Sarwar Hossain said.
