Can’t confirm AQIS claim of killing Bangladeshi gay-rights activist and his friend: US

The United States has stated that at this moment it cannot confirm Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS)’s claim of killing Bangladeshi gay-rights activist Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy.

“We don’t, obviously, have any reason to confirm it absolutely at this point,” deputy spokesperson of the state department Mark Toner said at a daily press briefing in Washington while replying to a question.

The AQIS reportedly claimed the responsibility a day after the murders on Monday afternoon at the capital Dhaka.

Xulhaz, who was an US embassy staff, was editing Bangladesh’s only LBGT rights magazine Roopbaan.

According to the SITE, a US-based intelligence site, the AQIS claimed to have killed them because of their activism on LGBT issues.

 “We don’t have any reason to believe this was not the case,” the deputy spokesperson said in reply to another query.

Xulhaz is the latest inclusion in the list of victims that includes secular bloggers, online activists, publishers, teachers and dissenters in Bangladesh.  The government could not bring the perpetrators to justice so far.

US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat on Wednesday met the home minister at the latter’s office.

After the meeting, she said the US condemned every single murder in Bangladesh. But Xulhaz was a “very personal” issue, she said.

She stated that the US was ready to assist Bangladesh in investigating those murders.