DHAKA: An elderly Buddhist monk was found hacked to death in Bangladesh, the latest in the string of murders of religious minorities and secular activists in the Muslim-majority region. While no group has claimed responsibility yet, it has the hallmark of the previous murders conducted by Islamists. Jashim Udin, deputy police chief of Bandarban said, "Villagers found Bhante Maung Shue U Chak's body in a pool of blood inside the Buddhist temple this morning. He was hacked to death."
The 75 year old monk is appeared to have been attacked by at least four people at the Buddhist temple in Baishari, 350 km from southeast Dhaka. "We saw human footprints in the temple and found that four to five people entered the compound, Udin said. At least 15 people have been attacked and killed since 2015, prompting several Bangladeshis to seek asylum in the United States and Europe. While the Bangladesh government vouches it is working to stop the attacks, so far it has charged no one in any of the 15 murders.
There have been systematic assaults in Bangladesh in recent weeks especially targeting minorities, secular bloggers, intellectuals and foreigners. In the recent attacks, a liberal professor was brutally hacked to death last month by machete-wielding IS militants who slit his throat near his home in Rajshahi city .
Even with the handful of arrests made, mostly of low-level operatives, there have been no prosecutions so far, and authorities have struggled to make progress. All attacks have a similar pattern, bunch of men with knives or cleavers surround their target and hack him/her to death.
