A
lay pastor/evangelist was recently beheaded
after sharing his faith with several Muslim
villagers who became Christians. On March 8,
Sarkar, 35, who worked with a local branch of
the Bangladesh Free Baptist Church in Jalalpur
village, located in the southwest division of
Khulna, was attacked and killed by 10 Muslim
extremists, Compass Direct reported.
His wife, Aruna, immediately filed a
case against the killers, and three suspects
were arrested. However, local Christians say the
remaining seven, who have connections with the
Jamaat-e-Islami political party, have tried to
bribe the police to get the suspects out of
jail.
The extremists also threatened Aruna
after she filed the police report, forcing her
to move from house to house in an effort to
protect herself and her three children. Sarkar's
slaying was the second beheading in the last six
months. On Sept. 18, a gang of assailants
decapitated Dr. Abdul Gani, a prominent
Christian, as he returned home from work.
Bangladesh has suffered from
religious disharmony since 1971, when the nation
was partitioned from Pakistan. The country is
approximately 83 percent Muslim and 16 percent
Hindu. Buddhists and Christians make up the
remaining 1 percent. Islam was declared the
official state religion in 1998.
The current government is a coalition
of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and three
other Islamic parties. The third largest party,
Jamaat-e-Islami, wants to turn the southern
Asian nation, located between Burma and India,
into an entirely Islamic nation, Compass
reported.