Bangladesh Sentences Six Militants to Death for Killing Gay Activists

DHAKA - Six members of an Islamist militant group were sentenced to death on Tuesday by a court in Bangladesh for the brutal killing of two gay rights campaigners five years ago.

Xulhaz Mannan, 35, the editor of Bangladesh’s first magazine for gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people, and actor Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, 25, were hacked to death in Mannan’s apartment in the capital Dhaka in April 2016 in an attack claimed by Ansar Al Islam, the regional arm of al Qaeda. The killings were part of a series of attacks on atheist bloggers, academics and other minorities that shocked the South Asian nation of 170 million and led many to go into hiding or flee abroad. Of the eight defendants in the case, six were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, public prosecutor Golam Sarwar Khan said.