Al-Qaeda Claims Murder of Leading Gay Rights Activist Hacked to Death

**kellyhound** · #1 ● 05-02-2016, 08:59 AM

Bangladesh, An al-Qaeda affiliate has claimed the murder of a prominent gay rights activist who was hacked to death in Dhaka by men armed with guns and machetes who entered his flat pretending to be parcel couriers.

Xulhaz Mannan, along with his friend Mahbub Tony, also an activist, died on the spot from cuts to their heads, according to police. A security guard who was also attacked was rushed to hospital.

A Twitter handle that identified itself as an outlet of Ansar Al Islam said its fighters had killed the two men, calling them "the pioneers of practicing (sic) and promoting homosexuality in Bangladesh". The group has made similar claims about the deaths of other liberal activists in Bangladesh.

Mr Mannan, who worked at the US government donor agency USAID and was previously employed as a protocol officer at the US embassy in Dhaka, was one of the founding editors of Roopbaan, the country’s first LBGT magazine. Mr Tony worked as an actor.

According to Sub Inspector Ansar Ali, Mr Mannan returned home at about 5 pm with Mr Tony arriving fifteen minutes later.

"At about 5.30 pm, five to six men came to the apartment gate saying they were from a courier company with a parcel for Xulhaz," Mr Ali said.

The guard went up to to check with Mr Mannan whether he was expecting a parcel, and when he told the guard that he was not, he came down to ask the men to leave.

The men then attacked the security guard and forcibly entered the first floor flat.

"They attacked Mr Mannan and his friend in the living room and then inside their bedroom. Most of their wounds were on their heads," the sub-inspector said.

A woman who did not want to give her name told The Telegraph that she saw a group of men come out of the block of flats each of them carrying back packs.

"They were shouting Allahu Akbar," the woman claimed.

The double murder comes just days after the murder of a Rezaul Karim Siddiquee, professor of English at Rajshai University who was hacked to death in similar circumstances, and a string of murders of atheist bloggers and secular activists.

Whilst Islamic state claimed responsibility for Siddiquee’s murder, an Al Qaeda local affiliated organization have claimed responsibility for most of the other blogger killings.

These two murders, however, represent the first time that LGBT activists have been targeted.

Mr Mannan was one of the main organizers of an annual Rainbow Rally, which since 2014 has been held every April on Bengali New Year.

But this year members of the group received online threats and amidst tight security, police banned the rally and arrested a number of activists.

The United States Ambassador in Dhaka said that she abhorred "this senseless act of violence" and urged "the Government of Bangladesh in the strongest terms to apprehend the criminals behind these murders."

Champa Patel, Amnesty International’s South Asia Director said that "The brutal killing today of an editor of an LGBTI publication and his friend, days after a university professor was hacked to death, underscores the appalling lack of protection being afforded to a range of peaceful activists in the country.”