{"id":1819,"date":"2016-02-21T10:17:56","date_gmt":"2016-02-21T10:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org?p=1816&amp;preview_id=1816"},"modified":"2016-02-21T10:17:56","modified_gmt":"2016-02-21T10:17:56","slug":"bangladesh-hindu-priest-beheaded-by-islamic-state-bbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=1819","title":{"rendered":"Bangladesh Hindu priest beheaded &#8216;by Islamic State&#8217; &#8211; BBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width lead\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/6173\/production\/_88374942_88374941.jpg\" alt=\"Relatives of a top Hindu priest react after he was killed in the remote northern district of Panchagarh (21 February 2016)\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\" \/><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"media-caption__text\">The murder of the priest triggered a surge of grief and shock among his friends and relatives in the remote northern district of Panchagarh<br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">The so-called Islamic State group has said it was behind the beheading of a senior Hindu priest and wounding two worshippers in northern Bangladesh.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement IS said that &#8220;caliphate soldiers&#8221; carried out the assaults using &#8220;light weapons&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The IS-linked Amaq &#8220;news agency&#8221; also reported the claim.<\/p>\n<p>Jogeswar Roy, 45, was attacked by two assailants armed with pistols and cleavers at his home in the temple on Sunday, police say.<\/p>\n<p>While the Bangladeshi government insists that IS is not active in the country, the jihadists in November said they carried out <a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-34942476\">an attack on a Shia mosque in the north-western town of Bogra<\/a> in which at least one person was killed.<\/p>\n<p>The militant group also claimed <a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-34625375\">an October grenade attack on a Shia shrine Dhaka<\/a>, which killed one and injured 80 &#8211; although their claim was dismissed by the government.<\/p>\n<p>IS has in addition said it was behind the murders of an Italian aid worker in September and a Japanese citizen in October.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Blood-stained cleaver&#8217;In the latest violence, police said that assailants on a motorbike attacked the priest in the remote northern district of Panchagarh with a sharp weapon, injuring two devotees who tried to help him.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 634px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/1172D\/production\/_86896417_a7ffecaf-21d0-4954-9473-22cabb622137.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">An attack on a Shia shrine in the capital Dhaka in October injured at least 80 people<\/p><\/div>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><\/figcaption>&#8220;The priest was preparing for morning prayers when they pounced on him and decapitated him on the veranda of his home inside the temple,&#8221; government administrator Shafiqul Islam told the AFP news agency.<\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;We recovered a blood-stained cleaver from the spot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There have been a series of recent attacks on bloggers and religious minorities including Shias, Sufis, Christians and Ahmadis by hard line Islamist militant groups.<\/p>\n<p>While attacks on foreigners remain rare, extremists have carried out a series of high-profile attacks on secular writers, hacking to death five bloggers &#8211; one a US citizen &#8211; in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Another militant Islamist group, the Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) is believed to be responsible for an assault on an Italian Catholic priest in the northern district of Dinajpur late last year.<\/p>\n<p>Hindus comprise the Muslim-majority country&#8217;s largest minority &#8211; about 10% of its 160 million population.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption body-width\">\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-35626237\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bangladesh Hindu priest beheaded \u2018by Islamic State\u2019 \u2013 BBC News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The murder of the priest triggered a surge of grief and shock among his friends and relatives in the remote northern district of Panchagarh The so-called Islamic State group has said it was behind the beheading of a senior Hindu priest and wounding two worshippers in northern Bangladesh. In a statement IS said that &#8220;caliphate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}