Third Bangladeshi blogger killed in machete attack

SYLHET (Web Desk) - A secular blogger in Bangladesh has been hacked to death in north-eastern Bangladesh in the third such deadly attack since the start of the year, police say.



Ananta Bijoy Das was attacked by a masked gang wielding machetes in the city of Sylhet, reports say.
Mr Das wrote blogs for Mukto-Mona, a website once moderated by Avijit Roy, himself hacked to death in February.



Mr Roy, a Bangladeshi-born US writer, had criticised religious intolerance.

He was killed in a machete attack while he was visiting the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, as he returned with his wife from a book fair in the city.



His widow suffered head injuries and lost a finger.

And in March, another blogger, Washiqur Rahman, was hacked to death in Dhaka.

Sara Hussain, a lawyer and human rights activist in Dhaka, has told the BBC Mr Das and Mr Roy were on a list of targets.

"They've always believed and written very vocally in support of free expression and they've very explicitly written about not following any religion themselves," she told the BBC World Service's Newsday programme.

"These last two have been part of a blog called Mukto-Mona (Free Mind), which is about free thinking and is about explicitly taking on religious fundamentalism. Their names have been on lists of identified targets."

Last month's attack on Mr Roy prompted massive protests from students and social activists, who accused the authorities of failing to protect critics of religious bigotry.

An Islamist has been arrested over his murder, while two madrassa students have been arrested over Mr Rahman's killing.



Bangladesh is an officially secular country but more than 90 per cent of its 160 million population are Muslims.