An outlawed Al-Qaeda outfit on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the brutal killing of Bangladesh’s first gay magazine editor and his friend here for “pioneering” homosexuality in the Muslim-majority country which has seen a string of murders of secular activists and bloggers.
Xulhaz Mannan, the editor of ‘Roopban’ — the only magazine in Bangladesh advocating gay rights — and his friend Tanay Majumder were killed on Monday by armed assailants who entered the flat impersonating as courier company officials, police said as they detained a college student in connection with the twin murders.
The Al-Qaeda in the Indian Sub continent (AQIS) claimed responsibility for killing the duo, saying that the two were because they were “pioneers of promoting and practicing homosexuality.”