Alleged Islamist Held for Slaying of Bangladesh LGBT Activists

Bangladesh police have arrested a man suspected Islamist militant over the hacking to death of two gay rights activists, part of a spate of murders of intellectuals, writers and religious minorities, officers said Sunday.

RELATED:
Bangladeshi Professor Latest to Receive Death Threats

Xulhaz Mannan, an editor of a magazine for Bangladesh's gay and lesbian community, and fellow activist Mahbub Tonoy, were murdered in a Dhaka apartment last month by about six men carrying machetes and guns.

Police on Saturday arrested 37-year-old Shariful Islam Shihab, described as a member of a local Islamist militant outfit that has been blamed for a string of similar gruesome murders of secular and atheist bloggers.

"We've arrested one man in connection with the murder of Xulhaz Mannan," Dhaka police spokesman Maruf Hossain Sorder told AFP.

The vicious murders of 25-year-old Tonoy and 35-year-old Mannan have been condemned throughout the world.

"He is a member of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT)," Hossain said, referring to Shihab. He went on to add that the two activists were murdered on the orders of the ABT leadership.