Nazimuddin Samad: killed
Credit: Dhaka Tribune

A Bangladeshi law student who posted against Islamism on his Facebook page has been murdered, police said Thursday, the latest in a series of killings of secular activists and bloggers in the country.

According to Dhaka Tribune, Nazimuddin Samad, 28  a masters student of Jagannath University was killed by suspected Islamist militants in Old Dhaka’s Sutrapur area Wednesday night.

He was attacked  by three assailants while walking to his home in Gendaria with another youth after completing classes at the university near Bahadur Shah Park. The youth accompanying the victim has remained traceless since the incident, police said.

“At least four assailants hacked Nazimuddin Samad’s head with a machete on Wednesday night. As he fell down, one of them shot him with a pistol from close range. He died on the spot,” deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Syed Nurul Islam told AFP.

“It is a case of targeted killing. But no group has claimed responsibility,” Islam said, adding police were investigating whether Samad was murdered for his writing.

The Dhaka Tribune said the assailants shouted Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) as they attacked Samad.

Imran Sarker, who leads Bangladesh’s largest online secular activist group, said Samad had joined nationwide protests in 2013 against top Islamist leaders accused of committing war crimes during the country’s war of independence.

“He was a secular online activist and a loud voice against any social injustice. He was against Islamic fundamentalism,” said Sarker, head of the Bangladesh Bloggers Association.

At least four atheist bloggers and a secular publisher were hacked to death last year.

Police have arrested members of a banned group called the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) over those murders, although no one has yet been prosecuted.

Secular groups have called nationwide protests and rallies to demand more protection for publishers, bloggers and writers, some of whom have fled the country or gone into hiding.