Unidentified men hacked to death a Christian grocer near a church in Bangladesh's northwest on Sunday, police said, amid growing attacks on religious minorities and secular activists by Islamist militants.

"Sunil Gomes was hacked to death at his grocery store just near a church at Bonpara village," Shafiqul Islam, deputy police chief of Natore district where the murder took place, told AFP.

Another police officer, inspector Abdur Razzak, said the motive for the killing of 65-year-old Gomes was unclear.