Editor of Bangladesh's first transgender magazine hacked to death by militants

Suspected Islamist militants hacked to death two people, including an editor of a transgender magazine, in the Bangladeshi capital on Monday, police said.

Julhas Mannan, who ran Bangladesh's first transgender magazine "Rupban", was murdered on Monday, a police official said. Three people reportedly came to his apartment in Dhaka posing as couriers and attacked him with sharp weapons. Another person also died in the attack, but their identity has not been disclosed by authorities.

The attack came two days after a university professor, 58-year-old Rezaul Karim Siddique, 58, was killed in a similar fashion in an attack claimed by the Islamic State. Siddique, who taught English and was known for his liberal views, was walking to a bus station in Rajshah when he was hacked to death with machetes.

The Muslim-majority country has seen a surge in violent attacks over the past few months in which liberal activists, members of minority Muslim sects and other religious groups have been targeted.

An atheist blogger, 28-year-old Nazimuddin Samad, was also murdered near Bangladesh's Jagannath University earlier this month, the Guardian reported.