Police: Previous AQIS claims found to be fake

DMP Deputy Commissioner (media) Maruf Hossain Sardar told this to the Dhaka Tribune when asked about the AQIS claim over the murder of LGBT magazine Editor Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Mahbub Tonoy. AQIS made the claim on its Twitter account on early Tuesday. “Such claims arrived in the previous incidents too, but they were found to be fake during investigations,” DC Maruf said. He went on to say: “We don’t know anything about an AQIS claim. We are investigating the matter from our own view.” Bangladesh’s first ever LGBT magazine Editor Xulhaz and his friend Tonoy were hacked to death in their flat at Kalabagan on Monday evening. Assailants identifying themselves as courier service deliverymen entered the flat and hacked the two. Xulhaz is a cousin of former foreign minister Dipu Moni, said Abdul Baten, deputy commissioner of Ramna division police. He was an official of USAID and a former protocol officer of the US Embassy. Tonoy was an LGBT and theatre activist.