Two prominent LGBT activists, Xulhaz Mannan and Tonoy Mahbub, were hacked to death on Monday evening in Bangladesh. “Unidentified attackers entered an apartment at Kalabagan and hacked two people to death. Another person was injured,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Maruf Hossain Sorder told AFP. He did not identify the dead, but private television Channel 24 said one of them was the editor of Roopbaan, the country’s only magazine for the LGBT community.
Sources told Gaylaxy that both were organisers of the Ramdhanu Shobhajatra in Bangladesh. This comes days after police in Dhaka arrested four LGBT rights activists taking part in a traditional procession to celebrate the Bengali New Year. Roopbaan, an LGBT rights organization in Bangladesh, had canceled plans for a “Rainbow Rally” that would promote tolerance for LGBT people as part of Pohela Boishakh celebration.