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The Muslim-majority nation of 160 million people has seen a surge in violent attacks over the past few months in which liberal activists, members of minority Muslim sects and other religious groups have been targeted.
Suspected Islamist militants hacked to death a leading gay rights activist and a friend in an apartment in the Bangladeshi capital on Monday, police said.
The attack came two days after a university professor was killed in similar fashion on Saturday in an attack claimed by the Islamic State.
Five or six people went to the apartment of Julhas Mannan, an editor of Bangladesh's first magazine for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community "Rupban", and attacked him and a friend with sharp weapons, Dhaka city police spokesman Maruf Hossain Sorder said, quoting witnesses.
Mannan previously worked at the US embassy.
They also wounded a security guard, who was undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Witnesses said the attackers shouted "Allahu Akbar" as they fled the scene.
The Muslim-majority nation of 160 million people has seen a surge in violent attacks over the past few months in which liberal activists, members of minority Muslim sects and other religious groups have been targeted.
Five secular bloggers and a publisher have been hacked to death in Bangladesh since February last year.
A group affiliated with al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the killing of a liberal Bangladeshi blogger earlier this month.
Islamic State has also claimed responsibility for the killings of two foreigners, and attacks on mosques and Christian priests in Bangladesh since September.
The government has denied that the Islamic State or al Qaeda groups have a presence in the country and said homegrown Islamist radicals are behind the recent attacks.
At least five militants have been killed in shootouts since November as security forces have stepped up a crackdown on Islamist militants looking to establish a sharia-based Muslim state.
