At least 10 priests of different churches in Rangpur have received death threats on Thursday.
The threat was issued in a single letter sent to the address of Rangpur Baptist Church pastor. The pastor filed a general diary in this connection on Thursday afternoon.
Additional Superintendent of Rangpur police Abdullah Al Faroque told the Dhaka Tribune that Reverend Barnabas Hemron, priest of Baptist Church located in the divisional city received the letter.
The additional SP said the priest received the death threat and a general diary was filed with Kotwali police station in this regard.
Police have already tightened security around the churches. “We have already begun to investigate the source of the letters,” Abdullah Al Faroque said.
Barnabas Hemron told media that he received a yellow envelop around 5pm.
The letter did not contain any name but it had an address that read Uttarpara village of Komolpur in Dinajpur Sadar, he said.
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He said the letter threatened to kill all the priests one by one as they were spreading Christian religion in the country.
He said the sender said that the country would be governed under Muslim laws.
The letter contained the names of the priests who were working at the churches in Rangpur city and surrounding areas.
When contacted officer-in-charge of Kotwali police station said they had deployed policemen at the baptist church and plain-clothes policemen in the area.
According to Bangladesh Christian Association (BCA), the country has around 3,000 churches.
An unknown gunmen has recently shot an Italian doctor-cum-pastor Piero Parolari in Dinajpur. On October 5, pastor Luke Sarkar escaped an attempt on his life when three suspected radicals tried to slit his throat in Pabna.
Parolari is now under treatment at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka while Luke fled his area on October 28 without informing anyone about his next whereabouts.