Two
people, including the editor of a magazine for the transgender
community, have been hacked to death in Bangladesh capital of Dhaka.
A third person, security guard of the apartment building wher the incident took place, was critically injured in Monday's attack that saw six assailants kill Julhas Mannan and Tanay Mojumdar.
Mannan ran Rupban, the magazine for transgenders, and had previously worked at the US embassy in Dhaka.
"Unidentified attackers entered an apartment at Kalabagan and hacked two people to death," Maruf Hossain Sorder, Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman, told AFP news agency.
The incident comes two days after a university professor was killed in a similar fashion in an attack in Rajshahi claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.
Parvez Mollah, 18, the security guard told Al Jazeera that the six
attackers were aged between 25 and 30 arrived at the building posing as
couriers.
"They told me that had some parcels for Mannan and, as I went up to his apartment, three of the six attackers followed me to the second floor and attacked Mannan with machetes," said Mollah.
"As Mannan fell to the floor, the attackers entered the apartment and fired bullets before fleeing."
Al Jazeera's Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Dhaka, said the space for freedom of speech was diminishing in the country with these kind of attacks.
"There is widespread fear in the country and the government is denying involvement of international terrorists or ISIL, even after such groups have announced that Bangladesh is one of their operating bases," he said.
Earlier this month, Nazimuddin Samad, a 28-year-old law student, was hacked to death by three men riding a motorcycle as he walked with a friend in central Dhaka.
Last year, assailants hacked to death at least four atheist bloggers and a secular publisher in a long-running series of killings of secular activists.
The South Asian country has seen a surge in violent attacks over the past few months in which liberal activists, members of minority Muslim sects and other religious groups have been targeted.
With additional reporting by Mahmud Hossain Opu
A third person, security guard of the apartment building wher the incident took place, was critically injured in Monday's attack that saw six assailants kill Julhas Mannan and Tanay Mojumdar.
Mannan ran Rupban, the magazine for transgenders, and had previously worked at the US embassy in Dhaka.
"Unidentified attackers entered an apartment at Kalabagan and hacked two people to death," Maruf Hossain Sorder, Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman, told AFP news agency.
The incident comes two days after a university professor was killed in a similar fashion in an attack in Rajshahi claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.
 |
|
Mollah, the security guard, was injured in the attack and is being treated in hospital [Mahmud Hossain Opu/Al Jazeera] |
"They told me that had some parcels for Mannan and, as I went up to his apartment, three of the six attackers followed me to the second floor and attacked Mannan with machetes," said Mollah.
"As Mannan fell to the floor, the attackers entered the apartment and fired bullets before fleeing."
Al Jazeera's Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Dhaka, said the space for freedom of speech was diminishing in the country with these kind of attacks.
"There is widespread fear in the country and the government is denying involvement of international terrorists or ISIL, even after such groups have announced that Bangladesh is one of their operating bases," he said.
Earlier this month, Nazimuddin Samad, a 28-year-old law student, was hacked to death by three men riding a motorcycle as he walked with a friend in central Dhaka.
Last year, assailants hacked to death at least four atheist bloggers and a secular publisher in a long-running series of killings of secular activists.
The South Asian country has seen a surge in violent attacks over the past few months in which liberal activists, members of minority Muslim sects and other religious groups have been targeted.
With additional reporting by Mahmud Hossain Opu
|
|
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
0 comments: