Gay rights activist killed in Bangladesh in suspected Islamist attack

Suspected Islamist militants hacked to death a leading gay rights activist and a friend in an apartment in the Bangladeshi capital on Monday, police said.

The killings took place two days after a university professor was slain in similar fashion on Saturday in an attack claimed by the Islamic State.

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Five or six people went to the apartment of Xulhaz Mannan, 35, an editor of Bangladesh's first magazine for gay, bisexual and transgender people, "Rupban," and attacked him and a friend with sharp weapons, Dhaka city police spokesman Maruf Hossain Sordar said.

They entered the apartment in guise of couriers, he said, quoting witnesses.

They also wounded a security guard. Witnesses said the attackers shouted "Allahu Akbar" as they fled the scene.

U.S. Ambassador Marcia Bernicat condemned the killing.

"We abhor this senseless act of violence and urge the government of Bangladesh in the strongest terms to apprehend the criminals behind these murders," she said.

Mannan previously worked at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka.

"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," she said.

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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 Qaeda claimed responsibility for the killing of a liberal Bangladeshi blogger earlier this month.

Islamic State has also claimed responsibility for the killings of two foreigners, and attacks on mosques and Christian priests in Bangladesh since September.

The government has denied that the Islamic State or al Qaeda groups have a presence in the country and said homegrown Islamist radicals are behind the recent attacks.

At least five militants have been killed in shootouts since November as security forces have stepped up a crackdown on Islamist militants looking to establish a sharia-based Muslim state.