Another liberal Bangladeshi blogger slain in machete attack

Secular blogger Nazimuddin Samad was hacked to death on Wednesday — (Image credit: Twitter/@NewsWorldIN)

Police in Dhaka, Bangladesh, said Thursday that machete-wielding assailants attacked and killed law student and blogger Nazimuddin Samad on his way home from class at Jagannath University on Wednesday night, hacking at him and then, when he fell to the ground, shooting him. Samad, 28, is the sixth secular writer or publisher killed in such a manner since the beginning of 2015, and a banned Islamist group, Ansarullah Bangla Team, has claimed responsibility for some of those attacks. Police said none of the three or four assailants have been identified, and no motive has been established for the attack.

Samad was reportedly an organizer of the secular advocacy group Ganajagran Manch, and he wrote frequently against religious extremism on his Facebook page, where he listed his religious views as "I have no religion." Hundreds of Samad's fellow Jagannath University students protested after his death, blocking entrances to the campus and arguing that if police had punished any of the other blogger assailants, Samad would not have been killed.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.