LGBT magazine editor killing: No arrest yet

Two cases were field for the killing of Xulhaz Mannan, one of the editors of the country’s first LGBT magazine Roopban, and his friend Khandaker Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy in Xulhaz’s Kalabagan apartment in Dhaka on Monday, but none was arrested.
Police investigators said on Tuesday that they were analysing CCTV footages to identify the killers who left the place brandishing firearms and machetes.
They admitted that cops failed to catch any of the attackers when they were intercepted being chased by the locals after the killings at about 5:30pm on Monday.
Xulhaz, also a USAID official who had also worked as protocol officer for US ambassador in Dhaka, and Mahbub, who worked with theatre group Lokanatya Dal, were hacked to death inside the apartment on Monday.
The killings triggered local and international condemnations.
Militant outfit Ansar Al Islam, Al-Qaidah in Indian subcontinent, claimed responsibility for the killings.
A graphic message twittered by Ansar Al Islam spokesperson Mufti Abdullah Ashraf read, ‘The mujahideen of Ansar Al Islam (AQIS Bangladesh branch) were able to assassin Xulhaz Mannan and his associate Samir Mahbub Tonoy. They were the pioneers of practicing and promoting homosexuality in Bangladesh.’
It said, ‘Xulhaz was director of Roopbaan (a cult comprised of the gays and the lesbians) while Samir Mahbub Tonoy was one of its most important activist.’
It also read, ‘They were working day and night to promote homosexuality among the people of this land since 1998 with the help of their masters, the US crusaders and its Indian allies.’
Xulhaz, the youngest brother of BLI securities limited managing director Minhaz Mannan Emon, was behind a Rainbow Rally on April 14, Bangla New Year, in 2014.
Roopbaan was launched in 2014 to promote greater acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in Bangladesh.
The detective branch investigators on Monday said it was a militant attack and only because of publishing the Roopbaan.
‘None is arrested in this connection as investigation in underway…We are verifying the militant links into the attack,’ said the case investigation officer KM Ashrafuddin, also Kalabagan police station inspector (investigation).
Dhaka Medical College coroners performed the post-mortem examination of the bodies.
Forensic expert Shohel Mahmud said that the criminals hacked only in the head and Xulhaz got 6-inche deep in the head for repeated attacks by ‘professional hands.’
‘The patterns of the latest attacks are as similar as previous several attacks [connecting to bloggers and others intellectuals],’ he said.
Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Nurunnahar Yeasmin on Tuesday asked the police to submit the probe report on May 24 in two cases filed in this connection.
Xulhaz’s brother Minhaz Mannan filed a murder case with the Kalabagan police station while Kalabagan police sub-inspector Muhammad Shamim Ahmed filed another case. Both the cases were filed against unnamed youths.
In the first information report, sub-inspector Shamim stated that they failed to catch any of the criminals even after firing two gunshots — one from his pistol and another by constable Nurul Islam.
He stated that on information they were heading toward the crime scene and encountered five youths on an alleyway called Dolphiner Goli (Dolphin’s alley).
The police official, who was also leading five-member patrol team, claimed that they tried to chase the attackers after several scuffles but the attackers ran away and disappeared on Mirpur Road.
He said that the attackers left over a bag, where the police found two pistols and some write-ups both in Bangla and Arabic.
A number of witnesses said that they chased the attackers nearly 500 yards and pelted stones at them.
‘Being attacked, one of the five criminals, who we presumed as local goons, brandished firearms and fired a bullet while another brought out a machete from his side-bag,’ said Jakir Hossain, caretaker of a nearby building.
He said locals, however, continued cashing the attackers and one of them filmed the attackers by his phone.
Another security guard said being chased, the attackers were heading for Mirpur Road through Dolphiner Goli and encountered the police patrol team.
The investigators said the footage the youth recorded was one of major leads into the investigation.
Apart from the footage, the police investigators collected CCTV footage of several nearby apartments.
Being frightened, many LGBT activists switched off their cell phones or stopped responding to calls while few others said that they were planning to seek asylum to any western country to avoid such brutal fate.
‘I feel really insecure after the attack on my friend Xulhaz since we used to work together for long time,’ said a 30-year-old LGBT rights activist.
Ain O Salish Kendra expressed concern as the law enforcement agencies failed to arrest any of the perpetrators.
The inspector general of police, AKM Shahidul Hoque, on Tuesday hoped that the killers would be netted soon.
On Monday, the injured security guard of the building, Parvej Mollah, told reporters at Dhaka Medical College Hospital that a group of youths came to the house impersonating courier service deliverymen and looked for Xulhaz saying that they brought him a parcel.
The 18-year-old Parvej Mollah, who joined two months back at the apartment as security guard, returned the workplace on Monday night.
The apartment caretaker, Abdur Rahim, said Parvej was now on rest.
Rahim said he went to toilet to pee and stayed there for five to six minutes when ‘the five-minute attack’ took place on first floor of the six-storey building.
‘I only saw Pervej screaming with his head injuries,’ he said.
Pervej’s cousin Mohammad Sumon, who also joined the apartment as security guard for one month, said he was frightened.
He said that two attackers — one inside the gate with machete and another outside the gate with firearms — were guarding the gate.
He, however, could not say how and in what circumstances Parvej opened the main gate.
A frightened shop-owner said that two youths were waiting near the apartment from 5:15pm and they were typing something on their mobile phones.
‘After they started chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘Al-Hilal Zindabadh’, and were brandishing firearms, I closed the shop from inside,’ he said.
Western countries and international rights groups said that the police needed to guarantee the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community, not harass them or threaten them with arrest as they were doing.
After the funeral prayer Xulhaz’s body was buried at Banani graveyard.
Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that such incidents were the manifestation of a conspiracy by local and international quarters.
He said that a vested quarter was carrying out the murders having similarities in nature to destabilise the country and hamper its progresses in various sectors.
He claimed that Bangladesh was now more secure than many other countries.
Responding to a question, he said, those involved in such killings might have link to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net