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Suspected Islamist militants hacked to death a leading gay rights activist and a friend in an apartment in the Bangladeshi capital Monday, police said.
The attack came two days after a university professor was killed in similar fashion Saturday in an attack claimed by the Islamic State.
Five or six people went to the apartment of Julhas Mannan, an editor of Bangladesh's first magazine for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community "Rupban", and attacked him and a friend with sharp weapons, Dhaka city police spokesman Maruf Hossain Sorder said, quoting witnesses.
They also wounded a security guard, who was undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Witnesses said the attackers shouted "Allahu Akbar" as they fled the scene.
The Muslim-majority nation of 160 million people has seen a surge in violent attacks over the past few months in which liberal activists, members of minority Muslim sects and other religious groups have been targeted.
Five secular bloggers and a publisher have been hacked to death in Bangladesh since February last year.
A group affiliated with al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the killing of a liberal Bangladeshi blogger earlier this month.
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