A 65-year-old Bangladeshi Christian man was on Friday attacked and critically injured by a group of youths while he was guarding a Catholic church and police have detained three suspects.
Gilbert Costa was attacked by youths while he was guarding the Saint Rita Church at Mathurapur, Pabna district, some 175 km from Dhaka.
Police suspects the attack was the result of a family feud.
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“Some men came to the church around 4 am and asked for its keys. When Gilbert refused, they started hacking him with sharp weapons,” said Martin Dominic Rozario, a member of the church management committee.
The attackers fled when local shopkeepers came to his rescue, he added.
Mr. Costa, has been admitted to Pabna Sadar Hospital with wounds on his head, hands and legs.
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“We have detained three suspects after the attack. We suspect the attack was motivated from previous enmity,” Chatmohar Police Station Officer-in-Charge Ahsan Habib was quoted as saying by bdnews.
“They are being questioned. All of them are from Laudia village,” said Pabna Additional Superintendent of Police Goutam Kumar Biswas.
The attack in Pabna is the latest in a series of attacks and murders carried out in the similar fashion across Bangladesh in the past two years.
The victims of those attacks included secular writers and bloggers, online activists, publishers, foreigners, members of religious minorities and rights activists.
In October 2015, a church pastor was attacked in Pabna’s Ishwardi upazila.