Racial  Killing raises  in  Bangladesh 

     Militants of the Islamic State terrorist group have claimed responsibility for the brutal killing of Hussein Ali Sarkar, declaring that the death of the Christian man was intended to serve as a "lesson" to other believers. Sarkar was mercilessly murdered on his morning walk, in the district of Kurigram, Bangladesh.

As reported by The Gospel Herald, at least two attackers stopped 68-year-old Hussain, who had converted from Islam to Christianity in 1999, while he was taking his regular morning walk in the town of Kurigram in Bangladesh. The men reportedly lunged at his neck with sharp weapons, sliced his throat and ensured his death on the scene itself.

"He died on the spot. The attackers exploded a molotov cocktail to create panic and left the scene on a motorcycle," Kurigram district police chief TobarakUllah told AFP. The murderers reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” as they took his life. 

In a communique posted on Twitter, ISIS on Wednesday took responsibility for the attack and said the murder was "a lesson to others", according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activity on the Internet. "A security detachment from the soldiers of the Caliphate was able, by the grace of Allah the Almighty, to kill the apostate (Ali), who changed his religion and became a preacher for the polytheist Christianity," the statement said.

Reuters notes that over the last few months, Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killings of two foreigners, attacks on members of minority Christian sects and other religious groups.However, the Bangladesh government denies that ISIS has a stronghold in the country, and police rejected the group's claim of responsibility for the recent killing as "bogus".

TobarakUllah, police chief in the northern district of Kurigram where the killing took place, told AFP that the investigation has been under way and that five men have already been arrested under suspicion.

Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, won an eight-month long war with its parent country in 1971. Nearly 90% of Bangladesh's estimated 169 million people are Muslim, with a Hindu minority of about 10%, and other minorities, such as Christians and Buddhists, making up less than 1%, according to the CIA World Facebook. Bangladesh ranked 35th on Open Doors' 2016 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most persecution.

"As the Christian minority is growing, it faces more and more restrictions and challenges," reads the report. "This pressure is not driven by the government, but by radical Islamic groups, local religious leaders and families. The competition between the large political parties of the country is also a factor, as the government is pressured to give in to demands from Islamic groups taking to the streets in protest."

Hussein joins thousands of others killed for their faith by Islamic extremists, prompting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to officially declare that ISIS is committing "genocide" against Christians and other ancient minority groups.

"Christians are being massacred because of their faith," Mark Arabo, president of the California-based Minority Humanitarian Foundation said. "Their churches have been bombed, their houses have been taken away, their clothes have been stripped from them. They're left in the desert in camps, begging for someone to rescue them. They've lost everything they have because of ISIS, but they haven't lost their faith, they haven't lost their hope."

The victim may have, in fact, known at least one of the attackers. According Ruhul Amin Azad, Sarkar’s son, said that a room in their house had been rented out by a young man identifying himself as Abul Bashir from Rangpur. Police, after investigations, later said that his national ID card and mobile phone number were both fakes.

TobarakUllah also added that Sarkar "was not a pastor or reputed Christian." He also suggested that a dispute over family property could have been a motive in the killing. The theory, however, doesn't go along with the eyewitness accounts of the attackers shouting "Allahu Akbar," the rally cry of Islamic jihadists the world over. In recent months, militants aligned with the Islamic State (ISIS) have targeted converts to Christianity, Shia Islam and Hindus also. In the week prior to the attack on Ali, ISIS militants killed a Shiite convert in the south western portion of the country.

The government has taken no action to curb the militant rebels in the country so far. In the past two years, five Bangladeshi bloggers who criticized Islam and the Islamic State have also been  killed  by  militants  with  ties  to

to al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. Many who are outspoken against the social and political problems in Bangladesh have been attacked or killed in the recent times, yet stirring no response from the government.

In a recent development, on Easter Sunday, when some of the Pakistan’s Christian population werespending time with their Muslim neighbours and their children, tragedy struck in the shape of a suicide bomb blast that killed many.

At least 70 people have been killed and more than 300 wounded in a suicide bombing targeting Christians celebrating Easter in Lahore, Pakistan. More than 341 others were injured, according to Punjab government spokesperson Jehangir Awan. The bombing has been labelled as one of the deadliest attacks against Christians in Pakistan, second only to the suicide bombing of All Saints Church in Peshawar in 2013.

At approximately 6:30 p.m., a homicide bomber detonated his explosives in the parking lot of Gulshan e-Iqbal Park where many Christian families were celebrating Easter Sunday. At least 29 children were killed in the explosion.

A spokesman for the JamaatUl-Ahrar group a sub group of Pakistani Taliban,publicly took responsibility for the attack. "It was our people who attacked the Christians in Lahore. It's our message to the government that we will carry out such attacks again until sharia is imposed in the country."

Pakistan’s Christians are a vulnerable group and are poorly protected by the government and the security forces. They are looked at as an extension of the Western culture. Even though Pakistan’s Supreme Court demanded that the government take necessary action to protect the minority after the 2013 church bombings, most of the reforms have not been brought to life.