Elderly Buddhist monk hacked to death in Bangladesh

An elderly Buddhist monk was found hacked to death Saturdayin Bangladesh,police said, the latest in a spate of murders of religious minorities andsecular activists in the Muslim-majority nation.

No group has yet claimed responsibility, although the killingin the remote southeastern district of Bandarban appeared to bear a resemblanceto several recent murders by suspected Islamist militants.

‘Villagers found Bhante (monk) Maung Shue U Chak's dead bodyin a pool of blood inside the Buddhist temple this morning. He was hacked todeath,’ Jashim Uddin, deputy police chief of Bandarban, told AFP.

Uddin said the monk, thought to be 75, appeared to have beenattacked by at least four people at the Buddhist temple in Baishari, some 350kilometres (220 miles) southeast of Dhakaearly Saturday morning.

‘We saw human footprints in the temple and found that fourto five people entered the compound,’ he added.

Suspected Islamists have been blamed for or claimedresponsibility in dozens of murders of Sufi, Shia and Ahmadi Muslims, Hindus,Christians and foreigners in recent years.

The Islamic State group and a Bangladeshi branch of Al-Qaedahave said they carried out several of the killings.

However the secular government in Dhaka denies that IS andAl-Qaeda are behind the attacks, saying they have no known presence in Bangladesh, andblames the killings on homegrown militants.

Buddhists make up less than one percent of Bangladesh'spopulation of 160 million people.