A popular U.S-Bangladeshi blogger, Avijit Roy, was hacked to death by a knife-wielding mob on Thursday.
His writing on religion had brought threats from Islamist hardliners.
Roy, an atheist who advocated secularism, was attacked in Dhaka as he walked back from a book fair with his wife, who was hurt in the attack.
The Bangladesh Police is yet to make an arrest but said they are investigating a local Islamist group that praised the killing.
Hundreds of students gathered in Dhaka to mourn the blogger’s death on Friday morning.
According to his family, the writer had received threats after publishing articles promoting secular views, science and social issues on his Bengali-language blog, Mukto-mona, or Free Mind.
He defended atheism in a recent Facebook post, calling it “a rational concept to oppose any unscientific and irrational belief.”
The killing of another secular blogger in early 2013, which was blamed on religious hardliners, sparked protests from free-speech supporters and counter-protests from Islamists.
Death threats against atheist writers and bloggers are common in Bangladesh.
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