Ansar-Al Islam, a group affiliated to Al Qaeda, has claimed the responsibility for the murder of two LGBT activists in Bangladesh. Xulhaz Mannan and Tonoy Mahbub were hacked to death when a group of assailants attacked them with machetes on 25th April. Xulhaz was the editor of Bangladesh’s only LGBT magazine Roopbaan.
In a post on its twitter handle, the terror organisation claimed that its Bangladesh Branch was responsible for the killing of the two people, who “were the pioneers of practicing and promoting homosexuality in Bangladesh”. The twitter post also says: “They were working day and night to promote homosexuality among the people of this land with the help of their masters, the US crusaders and its Indian allies.”