Dhaka: Miscreants on March 10 hacked the guard of a Catholic church in the Dinajpur diocese in northwestern Bangladesh.
Police have detained three suspects for attacking Gilbert De Costa, who guarded St Rita’s Church in Mathurapur in Pabna district’s Chatmohar upazila.
The 65-year-old victim is under treatment at Pabna General Hospital, reports the Daily Star newspaper.
According to Chatmohar Police Station Officer-in-Charge Ahsan Habib, the incident took place around 3:30 am at the gates of the church.
“We have detained three suspects after the attack. We suspect the attack was motivated from previous enmity,” he told reporters adding that further details will be disclosed after investigation.
Church management committee member Martin Dominic Rozario said that some men came and asked for the church key. “As Gilbert refused to give the key, they started hacking him with sharp weapons,” Rozario was quoted by the Press Trust of India news agency. “They fled the scene as soon as local shopkeepers came to Gilbert’s rescue,” Rozario added.
The church, under the diocese of Dinajpur, is around 175 km northwest of the national capital of Bangladesh.
This is the latest in a series of attacks and murders carried out across the Muslim-majority country in the past two years.
In October 2015, a church pastor was attacked in Pabna’s Ishwardi upazila during a countrywide spate of hate attacks on religious minorities.
The victims included secular writers and bloggers, online activists, publishers, foreigners, members of religious minorities and rights activists.