Qaeda claims killings of gay rights activists

Pressure mounts on Hasina govt; police detains student, claims to have found evidence.

An outlawed Al Qaeda outfit on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the brutal killing of Bangladesh’s first gay magazine editor and his friend here for “pioneering” homosexuality in the Muslim-majority country which has seen a string of murders of secular activists and bloggers.

Xulhaz Mannan, the editor of Roopban — the only magazine in Bangladesh advocating gay rights — and his friend Tanay Majumder were killed on Monday by armed assailants who entered the flat impersonating as courier company officials, the police said as they detained a college student in connection with the twin murders.

The Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) claimed responsibility for killing the duo, saying that the two were killed because they were “pioneers of promoting and practicing homosexuality.”

“They were working day and night to promote homosexuality among the people of this land with the help of their masters, the US crusaders and its Indian allies,” it said.

The 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.

“We have detained a college student last night for questioning,” a police spokesman said on Tuesday, a day after the machete-wielding killers hacked to death USAID staff Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Mahbub Tonoy, a university student.

As pressure mounts on the government, rights groups said the latest killings and the murder on Saturday of a liberal university professor appeared to show the attackers were expanding their range of targets. They demanded justice and greater protection for minority groups in the conservative Muslim nation.

“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,” said Amnesty International’s South Asia director Champa Patel.

“While the Bangladeshi authorities have failed to bring these violent groups to justice, the attackers have expanded their range of targets to now include a university professor and LGBTI activists.”

US secretary of state John Kerry condemned the killings of Tonoy and Mannan, who worked for the US government aid organisation USAID. Both had received threats from Islamists over their championing of gay rights.

“Deplore brutal murder of @USAID local staff member and another Bangladeshi advocate in Dhaka. Those responsible must be brought to justice,” Mr Kerry tweeted.