Hindu monastery worker killed in Pabna

Nitya Ranjan Pande

This time, a monastery worker belonging to the Hindu minority community has been hacked to death in a fashion similar to previous suspected militant killings.

Victim Nitya Ranjan Pande, 60, worked at Sri Sri Thakur Anukul Chandra Satsangha Ashram in Pabna Sadar upazila. He hailed from Gopalganj, our local correspondent reports.

Alamgir Kabir, superintendent of police in Pabna, told The Daily Star the motive behind the killing is yet to be known. Locals found his body was found lying in field around 5:00am.

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Police recovered the body. An investigation is already underway, said Abdullah Al Hasan, officer-in-charge of Pabna Sadar Police Station. A case was yet to be filed.

OC Abdullah said Pande was killed while he was taking his morning walk.

“Pande was a diabetes patient. He goes for regular morning walks,” said Jugol Kishor, acting secretary of the ashram. “Sometimes he takes the walk alone.”

He was living in the ashram for the past 37 years, Jugol said adding that he had no personal enmity with anybody. “He was a very polite man with gentle behavior.”

Nitya Ranjan Pande used to sleep at the room of Sri Sri Thakur Anukul Chandra Satsangha Ashram at Hemayetpur in Pabna Sadar upazila. Photo: STAR

Meanwhile, Abhijit Chattopadhyay, assistant high commissioner in Assistant High Commission of India in Rajshahi, has visited the asram and extended his condolences to the minority community.

A five members monitoring team headed by Additional Superintendent of Pabna Police, Liton Kumar Shaha, has been formed to oversee the progress and investigation of the case.

The murder took place during a countrywide clampdown on militant activities - a move that jump started with the killing of a police official's wife in Chittagong recently.

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Three days ago, a Hindu priest was killed in similar fashion in Jhenidah, another northern district. Previoulsy this month, a Christian grocer was killed in Natore and the police official's wife slain in Chittagong.

So far, police have record of at least 37 cases that relate to militancy. Most of these cases have been in the northern region of Bangladesh. But, at least five more suspected militant killings have taken place since then.

The northern division has been plagued by at least 16 untoward incidents this far since October last year that relate to militancy and resulted in death of at least eight people including a foreigner.