JMB, Jamaat men held over killing of Hindu priest in Bangladesh

Bangladesh Police have detained three people in connection with the attack on a temple in north Bangladesh on Sunday where a Hindu priest was killed and a devotee shot at.

Two of the detainees are said to be members of the banned Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and the other a Jamaat-e-Islami activist. They were detained in an overnight drive, said northern Panchagarh’s Debiganj police.

Several hundred people from all walks of life on Monday formed a human chain demanding the immediate arrest of the temple attackers. Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad and Bangladesh Hindu Buddha Christian Oikya Parishad, in separate statements, have strongly condemned the killing.

The unidentified attackers slit the throat of the 50-year-old Jogeswar Dasadhikari, who headed the Santo Gaurio temple, after hacking him with sharp weapons. The attackers, who arrived on a motorcycle, also shot and injured Gopal Chandra, the devotee who witnessed the murder.

With the killing of Dasadhikari, at least three clerics were attacked in last five months across the country. . In most of the recent attacks, the radical Islamists claimed responsibilities.

IS behind the attack?

Meanwhile, the SITE Intelligence Group, the U.S.-based terror monitoring group, said the Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the temple attack. However, there was no independent confirmation of the claim. The IS made the claim in a statement issued through the Telegram messaging app and Twitter, Reuters news agency reported.

“In a security operation facilitated by the almighty God, soldiers of the Caliphate liquidated the priest Jogeshwar Roy, the founder and head of the Deviganj temple that belongs to the infidel Hindus,” the IS statement read in Arabic.

The SITE Intelligence Group had earlier reported that IS claimed responsibility for the murder of a Japanese national at Rangpur, the attack on a Shia mosque in Bogra and another assault on a Shia procession in Dhaka. But law-enforcement agencies dismissed the claim, saying the West Asia-based jihadist group had no organisational presence in the country.