SECULAR Bangladeshi blogger Niloy Chowdhury was hacked to death in his flat in the capital Dhaka yesterday, in the fourth killing of a social media commentator this year.

Police official Mustafizur Rahman said the assailants gained entry to the building by posing as potential tenants.

The motive was not immediately clear and no-one claimed responsibility for the death.

Mr Chowdhury’s friends said he was a secular blogger who criticised radical Islamists at home and abroad under the Facebook name of “Niloy Neel.”

The killing was the fourth of a secular blogger since February, when Bangladeshi-US citizen Avijit Roy, who was also critical of Islam, was hacked to death on the Dhaka University campus while walking with his wife.

Two others were attacked and killed in March and May, one in Dhaka and another in the north-eastern city of Sylhet. Police have so far failed to solve the crimes.