Unidentified attackers killed a Christian business on Sunday in Bangladesh's western Natore district, a police official said.

Shafiqul Islam, the district's assistant superintendent of police, told journalists that "Shunil Gomez, 60, was hacked to death at noon Sunday at his grocery shop in front of his house."

He said passers-by saw his body lying in the shop and informed the family members.

The motive behind the killing was unknown.

The official said the modus operandi was similar to recent killings of secularist bloggers by militants.

According to the jihadist threat monitoring portal, SITE Intelligence Group, Islamic State has reportedly claimed responsibility for the killing of the Christian businessman which came hours after spouse of a senior Bangladesh police officer has been shot dead by suspected militants in the southeastern seaport city Chittagong, some 242 km southeast of the capital Dhaka.

Muslim-majority Bangkadesh has been facing a surge in violent attacks in recent months. A number of secularist writers, bloggers and publishers in Bangladesh have been killed or seriously injured in attacks perpetrated by Islamist extremists since 2013.

Two persons including writer of an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) magazine were killed last month by unidentified assailants in Dhaka, hours after a prison guard was shot dead in a separate attack.

Unidentified attackers also hacked a minority Hindu people to death last month in the central Tangail district, some 97 km away from the capital.

source : xinhua