Dhaka’s LGBT community live in fear

Dhaka

Members of the community say another friend received a chilling message that he was next in line. “Say your prayers, confess to God for your sins. Eat or drink whatever you wish to, nobody can save you,” read the handwritten letter, delivered to his home in Dhaka.

Bangladesh’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community was already marginalised in a country where same-sex sexual activity is illegal and many people strongly disapprove. Now it has been pushed further into the shadows after Xulhaz Mannan, editor of the country’s first LGBT-themed magazine, and Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy were murdered on April 25.

The attack, claimed by the regional arm of al Qaeda, was the first of its kind to target the community, although it followed similar killings in the last 16 months of university professors, bloggers and atheists critical of Islam.

LGBT members say they had gone into hiding in safe houses in Dhaka arranged by local and foreign friends, while others fled to the countryside, considering it safer than the teeming capital. Some have moved to more secure apartment blocks with close circuit television, while others are taking self-defence classes.