Suspected Islamist militants hacked to death a leading gay rights activist and a friend in an apartment in the Bangladeshi capital on Monday, police said.
The killings took place two days after a university professor was slain in similar fashion on Saturday in an attack claimed by the Islamic State.
Five or six assailants went to the apartment of Xulhaz Mannan, 35, an editor of Bangladesh’s first magazine for gay, bisexual and transgender people, “Rupban”, and attacked him and a friend with sharp weapons, Dhaka city police spokesman Maruf Hossain Sordar said.
They entered the apartment disguised as couriers, he said, quoting witnesses.
They also wounded a security guard. Witnesses said the attackers shouted “Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)” as they fled the scene.
Mannan previously worked at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka. U.S. Ambassador Marcia Bernicat condemned the killings.
