Secular activist Nazimuddin Samad killed for criticizing Islamism in Bangladesh

Dhaka: In the latest in a series of killings of secular activists and bloggers in the country, Bangladeshi law student Nazimuddin Samad, who had posted against Islamism on his Facebook page, was murdered on Wednesday. The 28 year-old was on the list of 84 atheist bloggers that a group of radical Islamists drew up and sent to Bangladesh's Interior Ministry. "At least four assailants hacked Nazimuddin Samad's head with a machete on Wednesday night. As he fell down, one of them shot him with a pistol from close range. He died on the spot," the Guardian quoted Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Syed Nurul Islam as saying to a foreign media. Islam said that it was a case of targeted killing and no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, adding that the police were investigating whether Samad was murdered for his writing. The Dhaka Tribune reports that assailants shouted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) as they attacked Samad on a busy road near Dhaka's Jagannath University. Samad was critical of state religion in the Bangladeshi Constitution and had expressed his views on Facebook. "Evolution is a scientific truth. Religion and race are invention of the savage and uncivil people," he posted. Meanwhile, Samad's school friend Wafi Chowdhury said that Samad had deactivated his Facebook account about a month ago at the request of his family "But I remember him telling me he would come back on Facebook soon with a grin," the Guardian quoted him as saying. At least four atheist bloggers and a secular publisher were killed by suspected Islamist militants in 2015 in the Muslim majority country.