A Buddhist monk was hacked to death by unidentified miscreants in Naikkhangchhari upazila of Bandarban early today.

The victim was identified as Mong Shwe U Chak, 75, used to live at the pagoda alone.

Abul Khair, officer-in-charge (OC) of Naikkhangchhari Police Station, confirming the matter said the body was found near Baishari Bihar at Uppar Chak Para village in the upazila.

Panic spread among the locals due to the first attack of its kind in the area though the motive of the killing is yet to be ascertained.

A pent-up situation was prevailing in the area and members of police and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) were deployed there.

Police suspect that miscreants broke into the temple some time at midnight and killed the monk by slitting his throat.

Mong Shoi U Chak was a religious leader preaching Buddhism in the area, said the SI, adding police were investigating the incident.

Six people, including Rajshahi University professor AFM Rezaul Karim Siddiquee, USAID staff member and LGBT magazine editor Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Tonoy, Hindu tailor Nikhil Chandra Joardar in Tangail, online activist Nazimuddin Samad and Pir Shahidullah (a preacher of Sufism) in Rajshahi were killed in almost the similar fashion, asclaimed by law enforcers, in attacks by unknown assailants in the last two months.