The Bangladesh branch of Al-Qaeda is claiming responsibility for Friday's murder of a secular blogger in the capital city of Dhaka, the fourth blogger in Bangladesh slaughtered with machetes this year alone.

According to the monitoring group SITE, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) branch Ansar al-Islam warned of more murders of bloggers to come in the Muslim-majority country: "In a communique issued in Bengali and English, and posted on its Facebook and Twitter accounts on August 7, 2015, Ansar al-Islam declared the attack to be 'vengeance' for the honor of the Prophet Muhammad, and vowed similar operations in the future against its enemies. The group threatened: 'If your ‘Freedom of Speech’ maintains no limits, then widen your chests for 'Freedom of our Machetes.'"

The death of 40-year-old Niloy Chakrabarti, who uses the name Niloy Neel in writing, sparked protests Friday in Dhaka, according to local press reports. As many as six men, armed with machetes, broke into his Dhaka apartment and hacked him to death.

Further Reading Third blogger this year hacked to death in Bangladesh

The journalist had contributed to the humanist blogging platform Mukto-Mona. His posts often were critical of Islam. Mukto-Mona was established by another blogger—Avijit Roy, who was murdered in Bangladesh in February.

Rights groups condemned all of the bloggers' murders.

"This spate of savage killings must end here. There is little doubt that these especially brutal killings are designed to sow fear and to have a chilling effect on free speech. This is unacceptable," said David Griffiths, South Asia research director at Amnesty International. The Committee to Protect Journalists urged Bangladeshi authorities to take action. "How many more bloggers must be murdered before the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina acts decisively to stem the violence and impunity?" the group asked.

https://twitter.com/AvijitsMM/status/629629299562278912

Overseas reports said his most recent writings had condemned the killing of three fellow bloggers, supported women and minority rights, and criticized the maltreatment of Hindus in the South Asian nation of 160 million people.

He posted to Facebook on May 15 that he was being followed after protesting the death of another blogger, according to AFP. He said the police declined to investigate the complaint and instead told him to leave Bangladesh. The Committee to protect journalists said Chakrabarti's name "appeared on a widely circulated list calling for the deaths of 854 bloggers perceived to be atheists."

The committee said that 17 journalists in Bangladesh have been murdered since 1992, when the committee began keeping records.

"Most of the cases have not been resolved," the committee said.