Sunil Gomes, A Catholic Grocer, Killed in His Store in Bonpara, Bangladesh

Sunil Gomes, a village grocer, in his store at Bonpara Bazar of  Natore District

Photo courtesy: The Daily Star (Dhaka)

Sunil Gomes, 71, a Roman Catholic village grocer, was hacked to death recently in broad daylight in his shop at Bonpara Bazar of Natore District, north-west of Bangladesh. The grocery store was near the local Catholic church of Bonpara in the Diocese of Rajshahi. According to news reports, the Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for this murder. 

Sunil's younger brother, Father Proshanto Gomes, working in the Diocese of Dinajpur, expressed his surprise and anguish at this brutal killing. He said that his brother was a simple villager with no enemies. 
 
This hacking death resembles the earlier IS-claimed killings in different parts of Bangladesh.


Hours earlier, Islamic militants shot the wife of the Superintendent of Police (SP) in Chittagong where he was zealously fighting Islamic terrorism. 

For more, please read the following:

• Christian trader killed in Natore (June 6, 2016)
• Islamic murders in Bangladesh: Catholic slaughtered, policeman's wife killed in front of child (June 6, 2016)
• Catholic hacked to death in Bangladesh (June 6, 2016)
• Who was Sunil Gomes? Christian Rrocer Hacked To Death In Northwest Bangladesh (June 5, 2016)
• ISIS kills Christian grocer in Bangladesh (June 6, 2016)
• Christian murdered in latest Bangladesh attack (June 5, 2016)

High Court Verdict: Islam As State Religion in Bangladesh Will Stay

Bangladesh Supreme Court building, where the High Court is housed, in Dhaka

Photo courtesy: AFP

Bangladesh High Court on March 28, 2016, rejected a writ petition that was submitted for removing Islam as the state religion in the 90%-Muslim-majority country. It means that Islam as the state religion of Bangladesh will continue.

A 15-member secularist activist group – having lawyers, university professors, writers and journalists – had filed the petition in 1988 challenging the status of Islam as the state religion in the country, which in December of 1971 had emerged as an independent but secular country from Islam-oriented Pakistan. They argued that the state religion conflicted with the Bangladesh’s secular character and discriminated against religious minorities. 

Only in June, 2011 did the court take up the case when the petitioners filled a supplementary plea challenging the status. The court then asked the government why the special status of Islam should not be scrapped. But the decision was further adjourned and the verdict was given on March 28 this year. In the same year of 2011, Sheikh Hasina’s government amended the country’s constitution and added “secularism” in it but retained Islam as the state religion. 

It is to be noted that military ruler President Ziaur Rahman came to power in the mid-1970s. To appease Muslim countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Libya and some others, he allowed important leaders of the banned Jamaat-i-Islam party  to return to the country from Pakistan and participate in politics. In 1977, with an amendment, he erased secularism from the country’s constitution. Another military ruler and President, Hussain Muhammad Ershad, made Islam as the state religion bringing a constitutional amendment.

In 1988, when the Ershad government was preparing to make Islam as the state religion, religious minorities, including Christians, were apprehensive of the outcomes and repercussions on them because of their second-class status after enjoying equal status with the Muslims since the 1971 independence. 

At the latest verdict of March 28, the religious minorities feel let down in the face of increasing deadly attacks on them (Protestant pastor Rev. Luke Sarker in Pabna District, Italian Catholic priestFather Piero Parolari in Dinajpur Town, and Hindu priest Jogeswar Roy in Panchagarh District) in the recent past. 

‘Secularism’ (which means religious freedom for all religions and no state interference in any one) and ‘Islam as the state religion’ (which means the direct intervention of the state regarding Islam) are two opposites that dilute the consistency in the Constitution of Bangladesh.

To learn more on the writ-petition and background information on the state religion, please read the following:

• Writ challenging Islam as state religion rejected (The Daily Star, Dhaka: March 28, 2016)
• Bangladesh court upholds Islam as religion of the state (aljazeera.com: March 28, 2016) 
• In 2 minutes, Dhaka court rejects 1988 petition to drop Islam as state religion (atimes.com: March 28, 2016)
• Keeping Islam as State Religion in Bangladesh Triggers Mixed Reactions (voanews.com: March 28, 2016)
• Bangladesh court rejects scrapping Islam as state religion (ucanews.com: March 29, 2016)

 (To be updated)

Hindu Priest Killed, Devotee Shot In A Temple, Arrest Made in Bangladesh

Jogeswar Roy (50) was brutally killed by assailants on February 21, 2016

Photo courtesy: www.thedailystar.net/

A police guard at the Hindu temple after the murder of the priest

Photo courtesy: AFP

Relatives of the murdered priest mourning his death

Photo courtesy: AFP

A Hindu priest, Jogeswar Roy (also known as Jogeswar Dasadhikari), (50), of the Sri Sri Shanto  Gaurio Mot (Hindu temple-cum-school) of Shonapota village under Debiganj Upazilla of Panchagarh District, Bangladesh, was hacked to death with a chapati (machete) on February 21 early morning. 

When the priest was preparing to lead the morning prayer in the temple, some assailants came and pelted stones on the roof of the temple. Hearing the noise, Jogeswar came out of the temple and  realizing the impending danger, he began to run away. He was caught on his track and slaughtered there. Gopal Chandra Roy, one of the devotees, rushed to the aid of the injured priest but he was wounded with a bullet. Three assailants hurled a crude homemade bomb to scare people around and fled the scene on a motorcycle.

Unmarried Jogeswar Roy had established the temple in 1998 selling his lands and other properties. 

The Islamic State (IS) later in the day claimed responsibility of the murderous attack on the Hindu priest.  

Three persons, belonging to a banned Islamist group, have been arrested so far.

 

For more on the event, please read the following:

• Attack on Hindu temple: Priest killed, devotee shot
• Priest murdered in Panchagarh in northern Bangladesh
• Panchagarh priest brutally murdered
• Banned Islamic Group Suspected Behind slaying of Hindu priest in Bangladesh
• Priest killed, devotee shot
• IS claims Panchagarh priest murder: SITE
• IS Claims Murder of Hindu Priest in Northern Bangladesh
• Bangladesh Arrests Three Men in Priest's Beheading
• Police arrest three over Hindu priest's murder in Panchagarh
• Islamic extremists slit throat of Hindu priest in Bangladesh fuelling religious tensions 
• JMB man confesses to killing Panchagarh Hindu priest
• Human chains demand arrest, capital punishment of killers
• Panchagarh Hindu priest killing protested in 3 districts
• Murder of Hindu priest 'horrifies' British envoy in Dhaka Alison Blake
• EU condemns Panchagarh priest murder  

(Updated on March 4, 2016)

Italian PIME Missionary Priest Receives Bullet Wounds from ISIS Assailants in Bangladesh

Father Piero Parolari, PIME, after initial surgery in Dinajpur, being placed in the helicopter for flying him to Dhaka for further treatment 

Photo courtesy: asianews.it/

Several years ago Father Piero Parolari, PIME, is being greeted by school children in a parish in Bangladesh

Photo courtesy: resegoneonline.it/

Three gunmen on a motorcycle shot at Father Piero Parolari, 64, a PIME (Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions) missionary bicycling his way to his work at St. Vincent Hospital in Dinajpur, and wounded him seriously on November 18. Initially the identity of the assailants was not known, but later the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the shooting.

Father Parolari, a missionary and a medical doctor, has been working among the poor in Bangladesh since 1985.

With gun-shot wounds on his neck, the priest underwent a surgery in Dinajpur Medical College Hospital and later he was transferred by helicopter to the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka further treatment.

Christians, Muslims, and Hindus staged several protest gatherings in different parts of Bangladesh condemning the attack and asked the Government for seeking out the culprits and making them to face justice. 

The UCANews reports, "Over the past two weeks, at least seven Protestants have received death threats in the form of text messages. It comes after violent attacks on a Catholic priest and a Protestant minister. Christian leaders say the attacks and death threats are interlinked."

The Italian PIME missionaries have been working in the north and north-west region of Bangladesh for more than 150 years. During the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971, they gave shelter and food to many Muslim, Hindu, Christian and other internal refugees in their mission and school compounds, and after independence, they did massive relief and rehabilitation work among returning Bangladeshi refugees from camps in India. 

For more details on the attack on Father Parolari, please read the following:

• PIME missionary targeted in Dinajpur gun attack (asianews.it)
• Italian priest shot in northern Bangladesh (ucanews.com)
• Itlian priest attacked in Bangladesh, in critical condition (Vatican Radio)
• Italian priest shot in Bangladesh by gunmen (The Guardian, U.K.) 
• Italian priest Piero Parolari attacked in Bangladesh (BBC, U.K.)
• Gunmen on motorbike shoot Italian priest in latest attack on foreigners in Bangladesh (japantimes.com)
• Italian priest shot in Bangladesh (bdnews24.com)
• ISIS claims responsibility for shooting Italian priest in Bangladesh (ibtimes.com.au)
• Islamic State claims responsibility for shooting priest (ucanews.com)
• ISIS claims attack on Italian priest in Bangladesh (The Times of India)
• Islamic State Claims Attack on Italian priest in Bangladesh (ndtv.com) 
• IS claims attack on Italian priest in Bangladesh (www.news.va)
• Bangladeshi Christians, Muslims and Hindus demand justice for Fr. Parolari (asianews.it) 
• Bangladesh Christians protest against attacks on priests (ucanews.com) 
• A dozen priests get death threat (The Daily Star, Dhaka)
• Priests under threat (Editorial of The Daily Star, Dhaka)
• Christians feeling insecure after attacks on priests (The Daily Star, Dhaka) 
• Christians concerned about safety (Dhaka Tribune, Dhaka)
• Killings, Death Threats Feed Climate of Fear in Bangladesh (voanews.com)
• 10 priests get death threat in Rangpur (Dhaka Tribune, Dhaka)
• 19 noted personalities receive death threat (Dhaka Tribune, Dhaka)
• Two more priests of a church in Khulna receive death threat (bdnews24.com, Dhaka) 
• Three seriously hurt after Catholic family attacked in Dhaka home (ucanews.com)
• Arrest attackers immediately -- Demands Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (The Daily Star, Dhaka) 
• Dr. Mizan finds link between war crimes trial and recent incidents (in Bangladesh) (unb.com.bd) 

(Updated on December 11, 2015)