A
knife-wielding mob has hacked to death a US-Bangladeshi blogger whose
writing on religion had brought threats from Islamist hardliners.
Avijit Roy, an atheist who advocated secularism, was attacked
in Dhaka as he walked back from a book fair with his wife, who was hurt
in attack.No-one has been arrested but police say they are investigating a local Islamist group that praised the killing.
Hundreds of students gathered in Dhaka to mourn the blogger's death.
Mr Roy's family say he had received threats after publishing articles promoting secular views, science and social issues on his Bengali-language blog, Mukto-mona, or Free Mind.
The website was inaccessible on Friday.
He defended atheism in a recent Facebook post, calling it "a rational concept to oppose any unscientific and irrational belief".
Tributes have been laid at the scene of the murder
Activists formed a human chain during the protest
At least two of the attackers hit them with meat cleavers, police chief Sirajul Islam told the AP news agency.
The attackers then ran away, disappearing into the crowds.
Two blood-stained cleavers were found after the attack.
The police told the BBC they were investigating a local hardline religious group had praised the killing in an online message.
Death threats against atheist writers and bloggers are nothing new in Bangladesh.
Prominent writer Taslima Nasreen had to leave Bangladesh following death threats from hardline Islamists in the mid-1990s.
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