A gay rights activist and the editor of the sole LGBT magazine in Bangladesh was brutally killed in Dhaka on Monday along with another gay victim. Six machete-wielding suspects reportedly killed the fatalities inside a house in Kalabagan district.
Newsweek said Roopbaan editor Xulhaz Mannan and a certain Tanay Mojumdar were murdered by perpetrators who disguised themselves as couriers. Both victims were identified to be openly gay and responsible for putting up Roopbaan in Bangladesh to make the public aware of LGBT concerns and issues.
It was added in the CNN report that the suspects went up and entered the apartment of Mannan located on the second floor of the building. The editor's mother and maid were also reportedly hurt but survived the gruesome murder.
Two men, including an editor of Bangladesh's only LGBT magazine, have been hacked to death by suspected extremists https://t.co/dRJz8wUluQ
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 25, 2016
The US Embassy has released a statement on Mannan's death saying he formerly worked for the poverty prevention agency United States Agency for International Development (USAID). "We abhor this senseless act of violence and urge the Government of Bangladesh in the strongest terms to apprehend the criminals behind these murders," US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat was quoted by CNN as saying.
For his part, State Department spokesperson John Kirby tagged Mannan's death as a "barbaric attack." "An attack like this is simply beyond words, unjustifiable, inexcusable," he added noting that the embassy is outraged with the killing of a member of their family.
According to Newsweek, this recent killing is another addition to the list of the fatalities of similar attacks in Bangladesh. It noted that five atheist bloggers and publishers were killed last year in the country.
One of the well-known bloggers in Bangladesh, Imran Sarker, fears that he may be next. He claimed that he received a call over the weekend informing him that he will be killed soon.
