Gay rights activist killed in Bangladesh

A PROMINENT gay rights activist was yesterday hacked to death in Dhaka by suspected Islamic extremists who gained access to his flat by pretending to be parcel couriers.

Xulhaz Mannan, along with his friend Mahbub Tony, also an activist, died from wounds to their heads, said police. A security guard who was also attacked was taken to hospital.

Mr Mannan, who worked at USAID, the US government donor agency, was a founding editor of Roopbaan, Bangladesh’s first LGBT magazine.

Sub Inspector Ansar Ali said that “five to six men came to the apartment gate saying they were from a courier company with a parcel for Xulhaz”.

The guard went up to check with Mr Mannan whether he was expecting a parcel, and when told he was not, the guard came down to ask the men to leave. The men then attacked the security guard and forcibly entered the flat.

Mr Ali said the two victims were attacked in the living room and then inside the bedroom.

A woman who did not want to give her name said she saw a group of men come out of the block of flats, each carrying back packs. “They were shouting Allahu akbar,” she claimed.

It comes just days after Rezaul Karim Siddiquee, a professor of English at Rajshai University, was hacked to death after a series of murders of secular bloggers and liberal activists. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for his murder.