Dhaka: June 6, 2016. The US-based SITE Intelligence Group made the claim several hours after Sunil Gomes, 60, was hacked to death inside his grocery shop at Bongram, a Christian neighbourhood, on Sunday morning. SITE’s report cited Amaq, a news agency for IS, to claim the May 14 killing of Buddhist monk Mawng Shoi Wuu at Bandarban was also the work of their militants. There have been previous claims by the global terror group following the killings of religious minorities in Bangladesh. But the government insists that these were the handiwork of local extremists. Police said the killers used sharp weapons to attack Gomes. The 60-year-old was found around 8:30am with half his body lying outside the shop, while the rest was inside, said Bonparha police SI Dayal Kumar. There were large gashes just below his neck, he said. His home was adjacent to the shop and his daughter, Shwapna Gomes, said the family was clueless about the murder of Gomes, who, she said, had no enemies. She said he once used to work as a gardener in a local church, while his brother, Prasanta Gomes, was a priest at a church in Dinajpur. Wuu, chief of a monastery at Bandarban’s Naikhyongchari Upazila, was discovered dead in the morning on May 14. Assailants had slit the 70-year old’s throat. Police have blamed home-grown militants after a spate of similar attacks on minorities. Hindu priest Jogeshwar Roy, 50, was slaughtered in the ‘Santagouria Moth’, a monastery he led at Panchagarh’s Debiganj, on the morning of Feb 21. On Mar 22, Freedom Fighter Hossain Ali, who had converted to Christianity from Islam, was killed by motorcycle-borne attackers while he was taking a morning walk. Last year, on Dec 10, shooting and bombings at a religious meeting in an ISKCON temple at Jayananda village of Dinajpur’s Kaharole Upazila left two people injured. Police said an attacker, who was chased down by locals, later confessed to having links with extremist groups. Before that, on Nov 18, Italian citizen Piero Parolari, 78, was left injured after being shot by unknown gunmen at Dinajpur. A doctor for the town’s St Vincent Hospital, he was also catholic priest for the Suihari Church there. On Oct 5, Father Luke Sarkar, a Bangladesh national, was knifed in his church in Pabna by three youths who claimed they wanted spiritual lessons. But he has recovered from his injuries.