Court sets report submission date for Xulhaz, Tonoy murder investigation

A court has ordered police to submit investigation reports for two cases filed over the murder of gay-rights activist Xulhaz Mannan and theatre actor Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy.

Metropolitan Magistrate Nurunnahar Yasmin wanted the report on May 24, after the case details were sent to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
  
Xulhaz was an editor of Bangladesh’s first LGBT magazine ‘Roopbaan’, besides being a USAID programme officer. The 35-year-old was a cousin to former foreign minister Dipu Moni. 

His friend Tonoy, 26, was in his apartment when multiple attackers, posing as delivery men, entered the building at Kolabagan and hacked the men to death on Monday afternoon. 

They injured the building’s security guard, Parvez Molla, and a patrol officer when they tried to stop them. 

The policeman, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) ‘Momtaj’ managed to snatch away a bag from one of the attackers, which is said to have contained a pistol, a locally-made fire arm, bullets and a mobile phone.         

At least six unidentified men have been accused in the case filed by Xulhaz’s elder brother Minhaz Mannan Emon at the Kolabagan Police Station.
 
Police filed another case at the station over the recovery of arms and the attack on the ASI, accusing five to six unnamed individuals. 

Meanwhile, SITE, a US-based intelligence group, has said that al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has claimed responsibility for the murder.