DHAKA: A Hindu college lecturer was seriously wounded after being hacked by three men in Bangladesh on Wednesday, police said, in an attack that resembles a recent spate of brutal assaults on religious minorities.

Ripon Chakrabarti, 50, a mathematics lecturer, cried out as he was attacked at the door of his home in the southern town of Madripur at around 5pm, leading locals to catch one of the assailants, police said.

It comes amid a week-long police crackdown on militant groups in Bangladesh in the wake of recent violence by suspected Islamists, with more than 11,000 people arrested since Friday. “He was hacked in his head, neck and shoulders. He has been sent to a big hospital in the nearby city of Barisal after his condition deteriorated,” police inspector Kamrul Ahsan said.

Police were questioning the alleged attacker for clues as to the motive, he said, adding that he is a college student who hails from the northeast of the country.

“So far, he has not said anything on why they attacked the lecturer,” Ahsan said.

However, the latest attack appeared to bear the hallmarks of recent attacks on minorities and secular activists by suspected Islamist militants.

Nearly 50 people have been killed over the last three years in a wave of gruesome murders targeting Hindus, Christians, Sufi Muslims, secular activists and foreigners, with most blamed on or claimed by Islamist militants. Many of the victims were hacked to death with machetes.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2016