Jhenaidah Correspondent :A Jhenaidah temple sebayet (attendant) was hacked to death early morning on Friday. He was identified as Shyamananda Sarker, 67, the sebayet of Kastasagra Radhamadan Math temple.Three unidentified miscreants hacked him to death at 5.30 AM when he was plucking flowers to perform rituals (Puja) under Hindu custom, Officer in-Charge of the Jhenaidah Sadar Police Station, Hasan Hafizur Rahman, said. However, none claimed the responsibility of the killing till the time of filing this report Friday evening. Locals said, three miscreants came to the temple gate by a Discovery motorcycle, chopped him and left the area quickly. Doctors declared him dead after the locals rushed the severe injured sebayet to Jhenaidah Sadar Hospital. “I was passing by the Ashram area at about 5.30 AM on Friday. The shebayet (Shyamananda Sarker) was plucking flowers for performing puja. He asked me where I was going in the early hours. I was going tonearby field to pluck some vegetables, I replied. But within a moment when I passed the area, the sebayet cried out ‘save me’. When I looked behind, I saw three young men with caps on head chopping the sebayet’s shoulder and head severely. I dived into a nearby ditch to save myself. When I regained my sense, I saw me in the bed of my house,” said Dipali Rani, 45, a neighbour and the lone eye witness of the killing.Shyamananda Sarker alias Prodyut Sarker, son of Kiran Sarker from Mushuria village of Narail Sadar upazila had been working as sebayet at the temple for four years. The family members of Shyamananda said, they would take the body to his village home for seen by his mother and relatives. Later the body will be brought back for funerals.Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Friday said those who were involved in the sebayet Shyamananda Sarker killing, must be tried. He said this while talking to journalists in his residents in the city.”I hope, the killers will be nabbed very soon, as there is an eye witness of the incident,” the Minister said. Bangladesh Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikyo Parishad, Jhenaidah unit President Narayan Chandra Biswas, Radhamadan Math temple General Secretary Milan Kundu and Vice President Swapan Ghosh expressed their deep concern over the incident. They were shocked as the miscreants were killing the Hindu religious priests one after another. But they could not see any visible progress into the investigations, they said. The Parishad leaders also demanded immediate arrest of the killers and produce them before the law.Additional Superintendent of Police, Jhenaidah, Azabahar Ali Sheikh said, they have been investigating the matter to know whether there is any involvement of militants behind the killing incident.Earlier, on June 7, Ananda Gopal Ganguli alias Nando, a Hindu priest was killed in the same district’s Mohishar vagar village. He also was hacked to death by miscreants. After the killing of the priest Ananda Ganguli, a number of ministers Mohammad Nasim, Hasanul Haque Inu and Rashed Khan Menon , two high officials of Indian High Commission in Bangladesh, leaders of Bangladesh Bangladesh Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikyo Parishad in Dhaka and other political party leaders including BNP standing committee member Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, BNP central leader Nitai Roy Chodhury, Jayanta Kundu and Biren Sikder visited the spot and house of victim and assured them utmost cooperation for the safety of the family as well as other minority group people.Nearly 50 attacks on minority Sufi, Shia Muslims, Ahmadia community, Hindus, Christians and foreigners took place in the past three years. Militancy suspects were blamed and also claimed responsibility for such killings and attacks.US-based SITE Intelligence Group said that Islamic State militants claimed responsibility of killings and attacks. The government, however, denied the presence of Islamic State and Al-Qaeda in the country and said that some homegrown ‘militants’ were behind the crimes.
