Bangladesh urged to probe LGBT murders

[caption id=“attachment_2725396” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] New York: Bangladeshi authorities should immediately investigate the killings of two lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) human rights activists, Human Rights Watch said. Police found Xulhaz Mannan and Tonoy Mahbub hacked to death in a Dhaka apartment on the evening of 25 April. The killings follow a spate of recent targeted attacks on writers, educators, bloggers and editors who promote liberal and secular ideas that radical groups believe are against Islam. The killings of Mannan and Mahbub brings to nine the number of liberals hacked to death in Bangladesh in 2016. “The slaughter of two men advocating the basic rights of Bangladesh’s beleaguered LGBT community should prompt a thorough investigation, aimed at prosecuting those responsible,” Human Rights Watch said. “The government needs to protect activists and to call a halt to the impunity that links this chain of vicious murders.”