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American blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh
Hardline Islamist groups have long demanded the public execution of atheist bloggers and sought new laws to combat writing critical of Islam.
A prominent American blogger of Bangladeshi origin was hacked to death with machetes by unidentified assailants in Dhaka on Thursday, police said, with the atheist writer's family claiming he had received numerous threats from Islamists.
The body of Avijit Roy, founder of Mukto-Mona ("Free-mind") blog site which champions liberal secular writing in the Muslim-majority nation, was found covered in blood after the attack which also left his wife critically wounded.
The couple were on a bicycle rickshaw, returning from a bookfair, when two assailants stopped them and dragged them onto a sidewalk before striking them with machetes, local media reported citing witnesses.
Roy, said to be around 40, is the second Bangladeshi blogger to have been murdered in two years and the fourth writer to have been attacked since 2004.
Hardline Islamist groups have long demanded the public execution of atheist bloggers and sought new laws to combat writing critical of Islam.
Police have launched a probe and recovered the machetes used in the attack but could not confirm whether Islamists were behind the incident.
