Bangladesh Gay Activist

Bangladesh police have arrested a suspected Islamic terrorist over the hacking to death of two gay rights activists, part of a spate of murders of intellectuals, writers and religious minorities, an officer said today.

In CCTV footage from last week, five men run down a Dhaka street, purportedly moments after killing Xulhaz Mannan, a Bangladesh gay rights activist.

Bappy was one of the members of Roopban, Bagladesh's only magazine for its embattled LGBT community, and whose founder Xulhaz Mannan was brutally hacked to death along with a friend inside his apartment last week.

Xulhaz Mannan was a rallying figure for Bangladesh's marginalised but increasingly outspoken lesbian, gay and transgender community, but his brutal murder has dealt a huge blow to the movement and forced some of its leaders underground.

The banned group Ansar-al Islam, the Bangladeshi branch of al Qaeda on the Indian subcontinent, has claimed responsibility for the killings of a gay rights activist and his friend in the capital, Dhaka.

Bangladesh police detained a college student and claimed to have found some "important evidence" in connection with the brutal killing of two gay rights activists at an apartment in the national capital.

Pressure mounted on Bangladesh today after two leading gay rights activists were hacked to death, the latest in a series of chilling attacks on intellectuals, writers and religious minorities for which only a handful of people have been convicted.

Bangladesh police have arrested a suspected Islamic terrorist over the hacking to death of two gay rights activists, part of a spate of murders of intellectuals, writers and religious minorities, an officer said today.

In CCTV footage from last week, five men run down a Dhaka street, purportedly moments after killing Xulhaz Mannan, a Bangladesh gay rights activist.

Bappy was one of the members of Roopban, Bagladesh's only magazine for its embattled LGBT community, and whose founder Xulhaz Mannan was brutally hacked to death along with a friend inside his apartment last week.

Xulhaz Mannan was a rallying figure for Bangladesh's marginalised but increasingly outspoken lesbian, gay and transgender community, but his brutal murder has dealt a huge blow to the movement and forced some of its leaders underground.

The banned group Ansar-al Islam, the Bangladeshi branch of al Qaeda on the Indian subcontinent, has claimed responsibility for the killings of a gay rights activist and his friend in the capital, Dhaka.

Bangladesh police detained a college student and claimed to have found some "important evidence" in connection with the brutal killing of two gay rights activists at an apartment in the national capital.

Pressure mounted on Bangladesh today after two leading gay rights activists were hacked to death, the latest in a series of chilling attacks on intellectuals, writers and religious minorities for which only a handful of people have been convicted.