Bangladeshi Law Student Attacked with Machetes and Shot for Speaking out against Islam

Islamist militants are suspected of hacking to death a blogger and Bangladeshi law student this week.

 

Nazimuddin Samad, 28, had criticized Islam on his Facebook account, according to ChristianToday.com. He was reportedly attacked as he was coming back from a law class at Jagannath University in the capital city of Dhaka on Wednesday, police said.

 

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," Syed Nurul Islam, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan police, told AFP.

 

"It was a case of targeted killing. But no group has claimed responsibility," Islam said.

 

Witnesses told police they heard the attackers shouting “Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest)” as they left the scene. Police are investigating.

 

Samad was a vocal blogger against injustice and typically wrote from a secular perspective. 

 

He once wrote: "Evolution is a scientific truth. Religion and race are invention of the savage and uncivil people."

 

Since his killing, hundreds of students from the Jagannath University have protested and called for the immediate arrest of the killers.

 

In 2015, suspected militants killed five secular writers and a publisher. A banned Islamist group claimed responsibility for some of those attacks.