A 75-year-old Buddhist monk was hacked to death inside a temple in the south-eastern district of Bandarban in Bangladesh, the latest in a series of attacks on religious minorities and secular activists in the country.
The police said the body of the monk, Maung Shue U Chak, was found inside a Buddhist temple.
In the last three years, more than 20 people from religious minorities, secular platforms and the intelligentsia have been killed by suspected Islamists.
The police said Chak appeared to have been attacked by at least four people at the temple in Baishari, which is 350km (220 miles) south-east of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
This incident follows the murder of two prominent gay activists, a law student and a university professor in April. Again in February a Hindu priest was beheaded in northern Bangladesh.
The so-called Islamic State group and a Bangladeshi militant group affiliated to al-Qaeda have said that they carried out some of these killings. They have also said they carried out attacks on Shia Muslim mosques and shrines and also owned up the killings of two foreigners -- an Italian aid worker and a Japanese farming expert -- last year.
Earlier this month, the Singapore government deported eight Bangladeshis who were believed to be members of a group called Islamic State in Bangladesh (ISB) which was set up in March. However, Bangladesh has denied that there is an IS presence in the country.
