The 28-year-old postgraduate law student was attacked as he was returning from a class at his university in Dhaka late on Wednesday, police said.
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He was killed as he didn’t really favour radical Islamists and criticised them on social media.
Witnesses heard the attackers shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) as they fled, police officer in charge of the Sutrapur area of Dhaka, Tapan Chandra Shaha, told Reuters.
A student has been murdered in Bangladesh after posting comments against Islamic extremists on his Facebook page, the latest in a series of killings of secular activists and bloggers in the country.
In earlier posts, Nazimuddin responded to a cleric’s violent speech against women which referenced the Quran, contrasting his speech with the claim that “Islam is the highest honor given to women!” .
A policeman stands guard at the site where law student Nazimuddin Samad was killed by unknown assailants in Dhaka. It “appears to be another targeted attack by Islamist militants on those who express dissident viewpoints” , the statement said.
He was also an activist of Ganajagaran Mancha, a platform emerged in 2013 to demanded death penalty for perpetrators of crimes committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 war, said Debashish Debu, spokesperson of Sylhet unit of the Mancha.
“Talented youths are killed one after another, but there are no visible measures against these heinous acts”, Kabir Chowdhury Tanmoy, president of the Online Activist Forum, which advocates secularism, told Reuters news agency.
Bangladeshi-American atheist blogger Avijit Roy, known for speaking out against religious fundamentalism was hacked to death on the streets of Bangladesh’s capital in February 2015.
Imran Sarker, who leads Bangladesh’s largest online secular activist group, said Samad had joined nationwide protests in 2013 against top Islamist leaders accused of committing war crimes during the country’s war of independence against Pakistan.
There have been rumors over the past few years that the terrorist group Ansarullah Bangla Team had a hit list of 84 people on it, many of whom have been murdered since the list came out.
“Rest in Power, Nazimuddin Samad”, one Facebook post said.
Rep. Joe Crowley, a Democratic lawmaker and chair of USA congressional Bangladesh Caucus, said: “The disturbing pattern of violent attacks on bloggers in Bangladesh is extremely concerning”.
The Asian country is officially secular – but critics say authorities have failed to adequately deal with the violence.
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On the Facebook “About” section, he explained his religious views: “Evolution is a scientific truth”.
