Two people were injured during bomb attacks on a Christian home in Bangladesh on Tuesday (3 May), the latest in a string of violent attacks against minorities.
Alam Mondol, 45, was hospitalised after the blasts at his home in a mainly Christian hamlet in Bangladesh’s western Chudanga area, reports AFP. Another man, also reportedly a Christian, was hurt as villagers chased away the attackers.
Police said they suspected the motive was “attempted robbery”, but Bangladesh is seeing rising Islamist violence.
On Saturday (30 April), a Hindu tailor was hacked to death for allegedly blaspheming against Islam’s prophet.
In March, a 65-year-old Muslim convert to Christianity, Hossain Ali, was hacked to death, while in January a 75-year-old pastor, Khaza Somiruddin, was also murdered. A group claiming to be the Islamic State claimed responsibility for Somiruddin’s murder, in addition to a series of killings of foreigners, death threats and attacks against Christian priests in the previous few months.
“Suspected Islamists have murdered at least 30 members of religious minorities, secular bloggers and other liberal activists, foreigners and intellectuals in Bangladesh in the past three years,” reports AFP.
Christians and Hindus account for less than 10 per cent of Bangladesh’s population of 160 million.