Dhaka: Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy were killed by trained assailants, said the physician who conducted autopsies on their bodies.

‘It’s the work of trained killers. They repeatedly hacked in the same spots to ensure their death,’ said Sohel Mahmud, assistant professor at the Forensic Medicine Department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

While talking to reporters, Sohel said Xulhaz and Tonoy bore similar injury marks and they died following indiscriminate chopping with sharp weapons, reports UNB.

He also said both the victims died in half an hour of the attack as their brainstems came out through the skulls following severe injuries to their heads.

The postmortems were conducted from 10:30am to 11:00 am.

Later, Xulhaz’s paternal uncle Aminul Islam received his body around 12:25pm while Tonoy’s maternal uncle Mahfuzur Rahman received his body.

USAID staff Xulhaz Mannan, 35, and his friend Tanoy, 36, an activist of theatre group Loknatya Dal, were hacked to death at an apartment in Kalabagan area of Dhaka on Monday evening.