Two Bangladeshi militant gay rights, one of which worked at the US Embassy in Dhaka, were killed Monday machete, after a series of attacks against activists and secular professors, officials said.
Six men entered the apartment of a seven-storey building of Kalabagan district and killed two people with machetes, said AFP spokesman of the Dhaka police, Maruf Hossain Sorder stating a third person was injured.
"God is great"
The attackers shouted "Allah akbar" (God is great), according to witnesses interviewed by local TV Jamuna. Police did not disclose the identity of the victims, but gay rights organizations confirmed to AFP that one of them was Xulhaz Mannan, the publisher of Roopbaan, the only magazine gay and transgender community in Bangladesh. Xulhaz Mannan also worked at the US embassy in Dhaka said in a statement the Ambassador Marcia Bernicat.
The other victim, the source said, was Tonoy Mahbub, also gay activist and member of the executive committee of the magazine, including journalists do not reveal their names for fear of reprisals.
Recently received threats
The homosexual community in Bangladesh was launched in January 2014 the first magazine to promote tolerance towards homosexuals in a predominantly Muslim country, very conservative, they suffer frequent discrimination.
The same year, the team Roopbaan (name of a tale in Bengali) had organized a first step "rainbow sky" to challenge prejudice against homosexuals. But this year, the police had prohibited this activity, citing security risks. A member of the Roopbaan team had recently told AFP he had received threats from Islamists. "They even created an online group to threaten us," he had said on condition of anonymity.
A teacher shot for "atheism"
Saturday, a teacher of 58 years, Rezaul Karim Siddique, had also been shot with a machete shortly after leaving his home in Rajshahi, a northwestern town where he taught at the public university, fourth professor of that university murdered. In a statement issued in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, by QAMA agency linked to the organization Islamic State (EI), the jihadist group claimed responsibility for the assassination of Mr. Siddique, author of poems and short stories, " for calling for atheism. "
But on Monday, the Minister of the Interior Bangladesh Asaduzzaman Khan denied any connection to the IE with the murder. "Local insurgents carry out attacks by exploiting the name of IE," he said, describing the cases of "isolated killings." He rejected the idea of a deteriorating security situation in that country the Indian sub-continent that has seen many bloggers and teachers murdered in recent years.
Denial of authorities
secularism advocates accuse the Islamists of having a blacklist of people to be killed and asked the government to better protect freedom of expression. Monday, blogger Imran Sarker, originally in 2013 the largest secular demonstrations against Islamist leaders, claimed to have received death threats by telephone Sunday. But for him, they are probably due to his criticism of government repression against the opposition rather than those against the Islamists.
The authorities of Bangladesh a secular country, constantly deny that Islamist groups inspired from abroad are active on their territory. Analysts said in turn that the long political crisis the country has radicalized the opposition, and armed Islamists are a growing danger.
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