Dhaka: A Christian shopkeeper was yesterday hacked to death by unidentified machete-wielding men near a church in Bangladesh, hours after the wife of a top anti-terror police officer was shot dead by religious extremists in the Muslim-majority nation which has seen a string of brutal attacks on minorities and secular activists by Islamists.

The dead body of Mahmuda Aktar, the wife of a top Bangladeshi anti-terror officer, is lifted up by police. Pic/AFP