Scores killed by lightning in
Bangladesh as Buddhist monk slaughtered in machete
attack
Euro Weekly News Matthew
Elliott 14 May
2016
ALTHOUGH there is no
evidence that some kind of cosmic karma is at work, the world’s
attention has been drawn to the populous and poverty stricken
nation of Bangladesh after an elderly Buddhist monk was found
hacked to death this morning, while more than 50 people perished
across the country having been struck by lightning.
Found on the streets of the southern region of
Bandaran on May 14, the monk becomes the latest victim in a long
line of targets seen as posing a threat to the virulent strain of
radical Islam that is poisoning the country’s politics and
reputation.
Although a Muslim majority nation, Bangladesh has a
vibrant Buddhist community and has been relatively peaceful in
terms of religious and ethnic strife since it violently emerged
from Pakistan in the 1970’s.
In recent years, however, local groups allied to
Daesh and Al-Qaeda have begun a campaign of terror against atheist
and secular bloggers, with many being hacked to death in the
streets of the capital Dhaka by machete wielding thugs.
The death of a senior Buddhist monk could show that
the perpetrators are set on expanding their campaign to different
regions of the country, and also members of different sects.
Christians, Hindus, and foreigners have also been murdered, as have
followers of the Shia and Sufi branches of Islam, considered
apostates by the radicals.
Meanwhile electrical storms are thought to be behind
the deaths of more than 50 people in the space of just 48 hours,
with the vast majority of the lightning strike victims being
farmers in remote paddy fields.
Two students and a teenager were also killed
by lightning in Dhaka, as climatologists point to rising
temperatures and global volatility as possible reasons for the
surprising number of confirmed deaths.