Bangladesh Sufi Muslim killed in suspected Islamist attack: Police

Dhaka: A local Sufi Muslim leader has been found hacked to death in Bangladesh in a suspected Islamist 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 Islamist 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 Islamists have carried out dozens of murders of atheist bloggers, liberal voices and religious minorities in recent years including Sufi, Shiite 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 Mohammed were hacked to death by suspected Islamist 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.