Secular student activist hacked to death in Dhaka

A Bangladeshi law student, who posted comments against radical Islamists on Facebook, was hacked by machete-wielding militants before being shot dead from close range

Dhaka: A Bangladeshi law student, who posted comments against radical Islamists on Facebook, was hacked by machete-wielding militants before being shot dead from close range here, the latest in a series of brutal attacks on secular bloggers and activists in the Muslim majority country.

Nazimuddin Samad posted comments against radical Islamists on Facebook

Nazimuddin Samad (28), a master’s student of the state-run Jagannath University’s law department, was killed by suspected Islamist militants in Old Dhaka’s Sutrapur area on Wednesday night. He had been on a hit list of 84 atheist bloggers that a group of radical Islamists prepared and sent to Bangladesh’s interior ministry.

Samad was attacked by three assailants on a busy road while walking to his home in Gendaria with another youth after completing classes at the university near Bahadur Shah Park. While murdering Samad, the killers shouted Allah-o-Akbar (God is Great), witnesses said.

A day before the murder, he expressed concerns over the country’s law and order in a Facebook post. Samad was known to have been critical of state religion in the Bangladeshi constitution.

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