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4/25/16, "Gay rights activist, U.S. government employee one of two hacked to death by radical Islamists in Bangladesh," AP, New Delhi, via NY Daily News
"Unidentified assailants fatally stabbed two men in Bangladesh’s
capital Monday night, including a gay rights activist who also worked
for the U.S. Agency for International Development, police said, in the
latest in a series of attacks targeting atheists, moderates and
foreigners.
Police said they suspected radical Islamists in the attack, which
occurred two days after a university professor was hacked to death.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
PROFESSOR IN BANGLADESH HACKED TO DEATH ON WAY TO WORK BY ISIS
The victims were identified as USAID employee Xulhaz Mannan, who
previously worked as a U.S. Embassy protocol officer, and his friend,
Tanay Majumder, according to Mohammed Iqbal, a police officer in Dhaka’s
Kalabagan area. Mannan was also an editor of Bangladesh’s first gay
rights magazine, Roopbaan, as well as a cousin of former Foreign
Minister Dipu Moni of the governing Awami League party.
The U.S. ambassador condemned the killing, just weeks after the U.S.
government and numerous rights groups urged the government of the
Muslim-majority country to better protect its citizens and secure free
speech.
“I am devastated by the brutal murder of Xulhaz Mannan and another
young Bangladeshi this evening in Dhaka,” Ambassador Marcia Bernicat
said in a statement. “Xulhaz was more than a colleague to those of us
fortunate to work with him at the U.S. Embassy. He was a dear friend.”...
Security guard Mohammed Parvez told reporters that five or six young
men posing as employees of a courier service entered the six-story
building where Mannan lived and went upstairs to his unit....
A man who told local broadcaster Somoy TV that he had witnessed the
attack also said at least five young men took part in the killing. He
said they chanted “Allahu Akbar,” or “Allah is Great” as they left the
scene.
Bangladesh has been riven by a wave of deadly attacks on foreigners,
religious minorities and secular bloggers, raising fears that religious
extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions
of secularism and tolerance....
The U.S. government earlier this month said it is considering granting
refuge to a select number
of secular bloggers facing imminent danger in
Bangladesh.
In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said Monday that
remained an option, and the department was encouraging the Department of
Homeland Security, which makes the determination in such cases, to keep
that under consideration.
Kirby called the attack “barbaric.” He described Mannan as a “beloved
member of our embassy family and a courageous advocate” for LGBT rights,
and pledged U.S. support to Bangladeshi authorities “to ensure that the
cowards who did this are held accountable.”
The rights group Amnesty International pressed the Bangladeshi
government to do more to stop such killings, with its South Asia
director, Champa Patel, saying that Monday’s attack “underscores the
appalling lack of protection being afforded to a range of peaceful
activists in the country.”
The group noted that homosexual relations are considered a crime under
Bangladeshi law, making it harder for gay activists to report any
threats against them.
“There have been four deplorable killings so far this month alone. It
is shocking that no one has been held to account for these horrific
attacks, and that almost no protection has been given to threatened
members of civil society,” Patel said.
Sen. Ben Cardin, top-ranking Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, called the uptick in attacks “tragic” and urged
Bangladesh to address the root causes of terrorism in its society.
Bangladeshi authorities, “must send a signal - loud and clear - that
crimes against anyone for who they are, the work they do, who they love,
or what God they worship can have no place in a modern society,” Cardin
said in a statement.
......................
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
US gov. employee and gay rights activist hacked to death by Islamists in Bangladesh who chanted Allahu Akbar as they left his building-AP...The US government encourages savage society to continue in Bangladesh. Its course of action in response to recent slaughters there is to increase Bangladesh refugee roles in the US, thereby letting the world know that in all cases it's US taxpayers who must be punished
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