Fourth Bangladeshi blogger hacked to death

A Bangladeshi blogger known for his secular views was hacked to death on Friday by unidentified assailants armed with machetes in capital Dhaka, the fourth one to be killed this year, the media reported.

According to police five assailants, suspected to be militants, armed with machetes entered the flat in two groups and killed Niloy Chatterjee, 40, in his apartment in the city's Gorhan area where he lived with his family since the last two years, bdnews24 reported.

His user name on social networking sites was Niloy Neel. He also used to blog against communalism and fundamentalism.

The blogger recently received numerous threats for his writings and stance against radicalism, sources said.

He had removed all his photos from his Facebook page and used Kolkata as the current city he was living in after he had started getting the threats.

A senior police official said the attackers entered his home on the pretext that they wanted to rent a flat.

"There were signs of haphazard hacking on Niloy's throat and neck," the official said.

"The nature of the attack is very similar to those on other bloggers murdered earlier."

"They (assailants) chose to kill him at this time of the day because the men of the families close by had gone to attend the Juma (Friday) prayers," the official added.

In February, writer-blogger Avijit Roy was hacked to death near Dhaka University. His wife and fellow blogger Rafida Ahmed Bonya was also seriously injured in the brutal attack.

A month later, Oyasiqur Rahman Babu was killed in Dhaka's Tejgaon area.

Two months later, secular blogger Ananta Bijoy Das was killed in Sylhet district.

In May, global terror network Al Qaeda's Indian offshoot claimed responsibility for the killing of secular bloggers in Bangladesh whom it described as 'blasphemers'.

Radical group Ansaruallah Bangla Team's two suspected wings - Ansar Bangla 7 and Ansar Bangla 8 - had also claimed responsibility on social media for the deaths.