DHAKA: A Bangladeshi blogger was hacked to death in Dhaka on Monday, the second such attack on a critic of religious fundamentalism in the country in less than two months.

Three knife-wielding attackers set upon 27-year-old Washiqur Rah­man near his home on Monday morning, weeks after the murder of an American atheist blogger in Dhaka triggered international outrage.

Police said they had arrested two suspects at the scene and retrieved three knives, but a third escaped.

Deputy commissioner Wahidul Islam said Mr Rahman had been “brutally hacked to death”.

“They hacked him in his head and neck with big knives and once he fell on the ground they then hacked his body,” he said.

Mr Rahman’s blog did not app­ear to focus on religious issues, al­tho­ugh fellow writers said he opposed religious fundamentalism.

Police said he used a Facebook page under the name Washiqur Babu to post articles written by other writers that appeared to mock fundamentalist views.

Deputy police commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarker said the motive for the killing appeared to be “ideological” differences with fundamentalist groups in Bangladesh.

“So far what we’ve gathered after primary interrogation of the two suspects is that they killed him because he criticised hardline Islamists,” he said.

Fellow blogger Asif Mohiuddin, who survived a brutal attack in January 2013, described Mr Rahman as a “fellow warrior”.

“He is a friend of mine and a fellow warrior. He was an atheist and a believer in humanism,” said Mr Mohiuddin in a Facebook message from Berlin.

The two suspects in custody are aged about 20 and are both students of madressahs, Mr Islam said.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2015

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