An elderly Buddhist monk was murdered in Bangladesh amidst a spate of killings by suspected Islamist militants.
Mong Shwe U Chak, 75, was found with his neck slashed in a Buddhist temple in southeastern Bangladesh on Saturday, according to multiple reports.
A police official told the New York Times that police were investigating the possibility that Islamist extremists had killed him.
@davidfrum Religion poisons everything.
— Marcel Ceballos (@TomP2010) May 14, 2016
Bangladesh has seen a rash of killings of religious minorities like Sufis, Shias and Ahmadi Muslims in recent years. Progressive activists and academics have also been targeted.
Last month alone, five people—including two university professors, two gay rights advocates and a Hindu priest, were hacked to death.
Daesh-affiliated militants have claimed responsibility for some of the attacks, while Al Qaeda-linked extremists are suspected in some of the other killings. Bangladesh, population 160 million, is a majority-Muslim country, but its secular government denies that Daesh exists within its borders.
On Thursday, Turkey recalled its ambassador to Bangladesh after the leader of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami was executed for his role in war crimes and genocide. Turkey maintains the leader’s trial was not up to international standards.
—Hunter Stuart
