We, the secular Bengali people, are very ashamed! In our Bangladesh, we are unable or failed to provide the security of foreign nationals and Church priest! Instead of love and dignity, we are giving some of them ‘death’, ‘militants attack’ as a ‘gift’! I would like to say here a shameful and barbaric news. An Italian doctor was injured in a gun attack by Islamic militants or assailants at Dinajpur town, Bangladesh on 18 Novenber.

The victims name is Piero Arolari, aged 57. The doctor, who has been working at Mission Hospital in Dinajpur, is giving service to the poor people of Dinajpur for the last 28 years. The victim is pastor of a Church, who came to Bangladesh from Lakko city of Italy, since 1987.

Ten priests in Rangpur district, Bangladesh received death threats in a letter Wednesday evening. Unidentified criminals sent the letter addressing Reverend Barnabas Hemrom, priest of Rangpur Baptist Church Sangha, church sources said. The letter, sent through the post, was received around 5:30pm.

Contacted, Reverend Barnabas told The Daily Star, 'I received the letter on Wednesday evening. The letter contains a list of nine more priests of other Baptist churches in the district.'

"The letter said, 'You will be killed any day or any moment. Eat whatever you want,'' the Reverend said, quoting the letter. Later, he informed police of the matter and filed a general diary with Rangpur Kotwali Police Station on Thursday. Abdullah Al Faroque, additional superintendent of Rangpur Police told The Daily Star that police had already beefed up security around the churches. 'We have already begun to investigate the source of this letter,' the ASP added.

Piero Arolari is the third foreign national to be a victim of gun attack in Bangladesh in last three months. Bangladesh Christian Association in a statement condemned the attack on Piero. Is this the Bangladesh we wanted? Have we failed to build a state we could be proud of? Now it’s question- why Islamic militants targeted Church pastor in a secular Bangladesh? Why do we have to see such a scenario even after 44 years of our Liberation War?

Piero is the second Christian priest to be attacked in Bangladesh. Earlier on October 5, Luk Sarker, 52, a priest at a local Baptist church, was attacked at his home in Ishwardi School Para in Pabna, Bangladesh. He escaped death but suffered injury.

Piero received injuries in his head but is out of danger now. His condition is now stable. Firstly he was admitted into Dinajpur Medical College Hospital. Later he was sifted to Dhaka's Combined Military Hospital (CMH) after doctors at Dinajpur Medical College found injury marks on Piero's scull following a CT scan.

Three assailants riding a motorcycle attacked Piero near BRTC bus stand area when he was going to Dinajpur medical where he gives voluntary services. The person sitting between the two motorcyclists opened fire on Piero from behind, a witnesses said. Locals rescued and rushed Piero to Dinajpur hospital.

Piero, also a pastor at a Dinajpur church, has been living alone at a house at Suihati Mirzapur in the town, Dinajpur district. Police picked up eight people for interrogation in connection with the attack on Piero. A vested quarter is behind the shooting incident who is trying to destabilize the country, police said.

On September 28, another Italian citizen Cesare Tavella was killed in a similar attack in Dhaka’s Gulshan diplomatic zone. Barely five days after his murder, a Japanese national, Kunio Hoshi, was gunned down in Rangpur district, Bangladesh on October 3. The latest attack comes about 50 days after the murder of Italian national Tavella, in the capital.

The Islamic State (IS) reportedly claimed responsibilities for the two murders. The government of Bangladesh has rejected the IS claims of responsibility and has blamed the rising violence on political opponents. Scepticism runs high on the mysterious killings of two foreigners and the quick claim of responsibility by the IS as both government agencies and security experts strongly feel that there is no IS in Bangladesh.

According to a report compiled by the secret agencies, the anti-liberation forces of Bangladesh, enraged by the on going trial of those committed war crimes during the 1971 liberation war, are killing foreign nationals to cast the government in a bad light.

World famous newspaper The New York Times wtote- ‘Bangladesh braced for protests on Wednesday as the Supreme Court upheld a death sentence against Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury for atrocities committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 war for independence from Pakistan. Some Bangladeshi analysts have said that the attacks on foreigners had been staged in an attempt to thwart the trial.’ (source- Assailants in Bangladesh Attack Catholic Missionary, 18 Nov. 2015).

As I read the history about the role of the anti-Liberation people, who were active during the nine months of the Liberation War, I see that the leaders of this group of people opposed the existence of Bangladesh due to an anxiety they felt about the birth of this new country, by which they thought it would mean the end of Islam.

Minority violence has shamefully become an integral part of the history of Bangladesh over the last few decades. As Napoleon is famously quoted to have said, ‘I drink Champagne when I win, to celebrate… and I drink Champagne when I lose, to console myself’, the anti-liberation thugs burn the minorities only when they win, to celebrate, or only when they lose, to console themselves. And it becomes epidemic during episodic polls, endemic blockades and ohers political activities.

Bangladesh has suffered a rising tide of Islamist violence over the past year. Seven online critics of religious militancy have been hacked to death, among them a U.S. citizen of Bangladesh origin. Religious minorities, including Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and Ahmadiyya Muslims, in Bangladesh face high levels of persecution, including the destruction of temples, homes and businesses.

General Zia and his predecessors introduced persecution against the minorities in Bangladesh. Bangladesh became Islamized under the military regime.

But it’s present government is secular. So the government should prove itself a real friend for the religious minorities and foreign nationals of Bangladesh by protecting them and make an example of all the perpetrators of crime against minorities by punishing them.

Bangladesh stepped up security for foreign diplomats and citizens after the killing of two foreigners within a week in attacks claimed by IS, which has vowed similar further assaults. Several foreign governments have issued travel advisories for their citizens after these killings, asking them to adopt great caution during their stay in the country. The Australian and South African cricket boards have put on hold the tour of their men and women cricket teams to Bangladesh.