A blogger has been hacked to death by four machete-wielding attackers in Bangladesh, the third killing of a critic of religious extremism in the Muslim-majority nation in three months.

Ananta Bijoy Das, a blogger who advocated secularism, was attacked by masked assailants in Sylhet yesterday.

Das, a 33-year-old banker, was also editor of science magazine Jukti, which means "logic", and on the board of Mukto Mona (Free Mind), a website opposing fundamentalism.