Brutal machete killing of two LGTB + activists

One of the victims was editor of the only LGBT + magazine in Bangladesh

GAYLES.TV.- Julnas Mannan was an acquaintance activist who worked at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and was also editor of Roopbaan, the only magazine LGTB + de Bangladesh. Mannan had received threats from Islamist groups. Last Monday, strangers entered his apartment. Dhaka and he was killed with a machete with another activist and fellow of Roopbaan magazine. In addition, a third person was injured. According to police sources, the aggressors have not been identified.

Mannan had already been threatened with death for his campaigns in favor of diversity and sexual freedom in this country of 160 million inhabitants, most of them Muslim. The homosexuality it is punishable in Bangladesh and can carry a sentence of up to life imprisonment under the penal code. Although in practice the lawsuits do not prosper in the courts, the community suffers continuous cases of discrimination.

This crime is the last of a violent surge which has generated a certain sense of insecurity in Bangladesh. During 2015 another five secular thinkers critical of Islamic fundamentalism were assassinated. Among them the writer Avijit Roy, whose death opened this series of attacks. Just two days ago a Professor of English He was also killed with machetes in a similar attack at the hands of suspected Islamist militants.

Roopbaan magazine was born in 2014 with the intention of promoting the rights of the LGBT + community in a conservative country like Bangladesh. In this Asian nation, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals they live under a social persecution that leads to silence, secrecy and taboos.