Hindu tailor stabbed to death in Bangladesh
Hindu tailor Nikhil Chandra was hacked to death in Bangladesh in an attack claimed by DAESH terror group.
Bangladeshi protesters and former Rajshahi University students hold placards and form a human chain during a demonstration against the killing of a university professor in Dhaka on April 29, 2016.
Three assailants sped up to a Bangladeshi tailor's shop by motorcycle on Saturday, dragged out the Hindu owner and hacked him to death, police said, in an attack claimed by DAESH.
Police official Abdul Jalil, quoting witnesses, said the attackers fled the scene after killing 50-year-old Nikhil Chandra Joardar outside his shop in the town of Tangail, 80 km (50 miles) northwest of the capital Dhaka.
DAESH terrorists claimed responsibility for the killing, saying the tailor committed blasphemy, the US-based monitoring service SITE said.
The attack came days after a Bangladeshi LGBT rights campaigner and his friend were killed in a similar manner in a Dhaka apartment.
The Muslim-majority nation of 160 million, has seen a surge in violent attacks over the past few months, in which liberal activists, members of minority Muslim sects and other religious groups have been targeted.
Relatives and friends attend the funeral prayer of Bangladeshi activist Xulhaz Mannan in Dhaka on April 26, 2016. Two leading LGBT rights activists were hacked to death on April 25.
Police said they were investigating whether Joardar's killing was connected to a complaint made against him for making a derogatory comment about Prophet Mohammad.
He was jailed for a few weeks in 2012 but released after the complaint against him was withdrawn, said Jalil.
DAESH and a group affiliated to Al Qaeda have issued similar claims of responsibility in the past, but the authenticity of Saturday's statement could not be immediately verified.
The Bangladeshi government has denied that DAESH or Al Qaeda have a presence in the country. Police say home-grown militants groups are behind the attacks.
Western security experts doubt that there are any direct operational links between DAESH, based in the Middle East, and militants operating on the ground in Bangladesh.
But they do say that a "call and response" of claims and statements of support for militant attacks through their propaganda channels allows them to create the impression of being in league together.
Human rights activists have urged mainstream politicians in Bangladesh to abandon sectarian hostilities that date back to the 1971 war of independence, and to engage in a constructive dialogue.
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