Amid the nationwide police crackdown on militants that began on Friday, unknown assailants have hacked an attendant of a Hindu ashram to death in Hemayetpur Upazila of Pabna.
Nityaranjan Pandey, 62, the attendant of Thakur Anukul Chandra Satsanga Paramtirtha Hemayetpurdham ashram, was murdered around 6:15am, said ASP (Sadar Circle) Selim Khan.
The deceased hailed from Aruya Kangshu area in Sadar upazila of Gopalganj district. He had been serving as an assistant to Sri Sri Thakur Anukul Chandra Ashram at Sadar thana in Pabna for 40 years.
He was murdered only 200 yards far from the ashram and which is Pabna Mental Hospital main gate.
The Pabna Sadar police officer in-charge Abdullah Al Hassan said unidentified men attacked Nittyaranjan as he went for his morning walk at about 5:30am near Pabna Mental Hospital. The assailants hacked him indiscriminately on his shoulder and head and left him dead on the spot.
Later, police recovered the body.
Pabna superintendent of police Alamgir Kabir and other senior law-enforcers visited the crime scene immediately after the incident.
Earlier on June 5, miscreants hacked to death a 65-year-old Christian grocer Sunil Gomez in Boraigram upazila of Natore.
On June 7, unidentified attackers slit throat of 70-year-old Hindu priest Ananda Gopal Ganguly in Jhenaidah.
All the murders were carried out in a similar way.
Nittyaranjan is the 12th person to be killed in the last ten weeks with most of the attacks being claimed by Islamic State jihadists’ group.
QH-LY