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Agence France-Presse

An elderly Buddhist monk was found hacked to death yesterday in Bangladesh – the latest in a spate of murders of religious minorities and secular activists in the Muslim-majority nation.
No group had claimed responsibility, although the killing in the remote south eastern district of Bandarban bore a resemblance to several recent murders by suspected Islamist militants.
“Villagers found Bhante [monk] Maung Shue U Chak’s dead body in a pool of blood inside the Buddhist temple this morning. He was hacked to death,” Jashim Uddin, deputy police chief of Bandarban, said.
He said the monk, 75, appeared to have been attacked by at least four people at the temple in Baishari, some 350km southeast of Dhaka.
“We saw human footprints in the temple and found four to five people entered the compound.”
Uddin said U Chak was living alone in the hillside temple after having recently left farming to become a full-time monk.
Villagers found Bhante [monk] Maung Shue U Chak’s dead body in a pool of blood inside the Buddhist temple this morning. He was hacked to death
Jashim Uddin, deputy police chief
Jyotirmoy Barua, a top Bangladeshi human rights lawyer, who is close to the country’s Buddhist community said U Chak had received anonymous death threats, which no one took seriously.
Bandarban is largely Buddhist, home to indigenous peoples who adopted the religion centuries ago.
Police district sub-inspector Anisur Rahman, who was at the scene, said officers had not yet established a motive but that “it appeared the monk did not have any personal enemies”.
The murder adds to a grim toll in past weeks, with an atheist student, two gay rights activists, a liberal professor, a Hindu tailor and a Sufi Muslim leader hacked to death since last month.
The Islamic State group and a Bangladeshi branch of al-Qaeda have said they carried out several of the killings.


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Islamic militancy

Elderly Buddhist monk is hacked to death in Bangladesh

Bangladeshi policemen stand guard at the entrance to the National Mosque. Photo: AP

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