The editor of Bangladesh’s LGBT magazine Roopbaan has been hacked to death in the country’s capital, reports say.
Xulhaz Mannan (pictured left) was one of two people killed in Dhaka. About six attackers allegedly entered Mannan’s flat and hacked him and his friend to death, according to The Guardian. Two others were injured.
Alongside his editorship, Mannan was a member of the US embassy. The US ambassador to Bangladesh, Marcia Bernicat, has condemned the killing.
“I am devastated by the brutal murder of Xulhaz Mannan and another young Bangladeshi,” she said.
“We abhor this senseless act of violence and urge the government of Bangladesh in the strongest terms to apprehend the criminals behind these murders.”
Mannan was the country’s top gay rights activist. Roopbaan was the first, and only, magazine for the LGBT community.
It launched in 2014 to promote love in the community.
“Promoting love and promoting the right to love,” Mannan had reportedly said at the magazine’s launch.
“The audience for love is huge and that’s who this is for.”
The BBC reports so-called Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killings, however the Bangledeshi government has said there’s no IS presence in the country.
Lead image via The Guardian and Facebook.
