NEW DELHI—Three motorcycle-riding assailants hacked and shot to death a student opponent of radical Islam as he was walking with a friend along a street in Bangladesh’s capital, police said Thursday.
The killing on Wednesday night follows a string of similar attacks last year, when at least five secular bloggers and publishers were killed, allegedly by radical Islamists.
Police suspect 28-year-old Nazimuddin Samad was targeted for his outspoken atheism in the Muslim-majority country and for supporting a 2013 movement to demand capital punishment for war crimes involving the independence war against Pakistan in 1971, according to Dhaka Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Nurul Amin.
No group immediately claimed responsibility.
Bangladeshi students protest seeking the arrest of three motorcycle-riding assailants who hacked and shot student activist Nazimuddin Samad to death as he walked with a friend, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on April 7, 2016. AP Photo
