Hindu priest latest hacking victim killed in Bangladesh

Police in Bangladesh say a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death on Friday by three assailants on a motorcycle.

Shaymanonda Das was getting ready for morning prayers in the district of Jhenaidah when he was hacked on the neck with machetes, the BBC reports. Police say the motive isn't clear, but a similar attack took place in the same district last month, with the victim a 70-year-old Hindu priest hacked to death in a rice paddy field.

Since February 2013, more than 40 people in Bangladesh, including academics, secular bloggers, and gay rights activists, have been killed in similar attacks pinned on Islamic militants. The Islamic State has claimed credit for some of the deaths, but the government says ISIS does not have a presence in the country, and local militant groups are responsible, the BBC reports. To combat such terrorist organizations, the government says it has arrested thousands of people.

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