Bangladesh Sufi Muslim killed in suspected extremist attack

Villagers found Mohammad Shahidullah's body in a pool of blood in a mango grove in Rajshahi

DHAKA: A local Sufi Muslim leader has been found hacked to death in Bangladesh in a suspected extremist killing, police said Saturday, two weeks after the Islamic State group claimed the murder of a liberal professor in the same northwestern district.

Mohammad Shahidullah, 65, went missing after leaving home on Friday morning, until villagers last night found his body in a pool of blood in a mango grove in Rajshahi.



"He was not a famous Sufi. But there could be a possibility that he was killed by extremist militants," Rajshahi district police chief Nisharul Arif told AFP.

The police officer said the killing of the self-proclaimed Sufi master was "similar" to a recent spate of hacking murders of religious minorities in the country.

"He was slaughtered from his neck and there are also some deep gashes in his throat," Abdur Razzak, a local police official said, adding that "he had scores of followers in a nearby district".



Sufi Islam is a mystical form of Islam popular in rural Bangladesh but considered deviant by many of the country's majority Sunni Muslims.

They include the Saudi-inspired Salafis and Wahabis, who are gaining strength in the country.

Suspected extremists have carried out dozens of murders of atheist bloggers, liberal voices and religious minorities in recent years including Sufi, Shia and Ahmadi Muslims, Hindus, Christians and foreigners.

In the past five weeks, two gay activists, a liberal professor, an atheist activist and a Hindu tailor who allegedly made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) were hacked to death by suspected extremist militants.



Some of the attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State group and a local branch of Al-Qaeda, although Dhaka denies the transnational groups have any presence in the country.