Police in Bangladesh said that a top gay rights activist and editor at the country’s only LGBT magazine is one of two people who have been hacked to death in Dhaka yesterday.

The US ambassador to Bangladesh condemned the killing of Xulhaz Mannan, who also worked at the US embassy. Another person was also injured when the attackers entered a Dhaka flat.

Since February last year suspected militants have killed several secular or atheist writers and members of religious minority groups. The two men were murdered two days after a university teacher was hacked to death by suspected Islamist militants on Saturday. So-called Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility – but the Bangladeshi government insists there is no IS presence in the country.