'Islamophobia 101' - Third blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh by Muslim extremists for speaking out against Islam.

'Islamophobia 101' - Third blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh by Muslim extremists for speaking out against Islam. (DM).

A Bangladeshi blogger who spoke out against religious extremism has been hacked to death in the northeastern city of Sylhet, the third victim of such attacks in three months.

Ananta Bijoy Das had left his home and was riding to town in a rickshaw when four men armed with machetes jumped on him and hacked him to death, according to police.

The attack took place at around 8.30am local time, and is believed to be linked to secular blog Mukto-Mona, which Das wrote for.

In February Dr Avijit Roy, an American-born Bangladeshi who created the Mukto-Mona blog, was killed by machete-wieling thugs in Dhaka.

Roy, 42, had his head sliced open and was left for dead in the streets while his wife, who was with him at the time, was left with a deep gash to her head.

Obscure militant group Ansar Bangla 7 claimed responsibility at the time of the attack, and said it had drawn up a list of other bloggers it wanted to target.

However, since then Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent has also claimed responsibility. Police say an Islamist is being held over the attack.

Das had previously written about Roy's death, and on Monday night he posted a Facebook status update questioning the police’s role in his killing.

His last post, minutes before his murder, was on a ruling party MP’s comment that he wanted to whip a teacher, according to the Dhakar Tribune.

Das was also a member of Gonojagoron Moncho, a political movement calling for the execution of war criminals and opposing Islamist political parties.

Following the announcement of his death local Gonojagoron activists organised a protest rally, demanding immediate arrest of the killers. Read the full story here.