A secular blogger in Bangladesh who turned into murdered at his home on Friday had told police of threats against him and requested safety weeks earlier than he died.
Niloy Chakrabarti, who used the pen name Niloy Neel, turned into hacked to loss of life with machetes after a gang broke into his condo within the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. He’s the fourth blogger to have been killed in Bangladesh seeing that February.
In an interview with the Mother or father in May additionally, Chakrabarti said he turned into scared that he might be killed and that he had attempted to file reviews with local police approximately endured harassment. He claimed his proceedings have been now not taken severely.
Imran H Sarker, head of the Bangladesh Blogger and Activist Community, said Chakrabarti were a “indexed target”. “They entered his room on the 5th floor and shoved his pal aside and then hacked him to loss of life,” Sarker advised Agence France-Presse.
Avijit Roy, the blogger who would not backtrack in the face of threats
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The hacking to demise in February of Bangladeshi-born US citizen Avijit Roy, a technology author and blog website moderator, precipitated outrage round the arena.
His demise became accompanied with the aid of that of 27-yr-antique Washiqur Rahman, killed in Dhaka in March, and Ananta Bijoy Das, murdered with the aid of a collection wielding machetes on 13 May additionally as he headed to paintings in Sylhet, northern Bangladesh.
Extra than one hundred fifty writers, which includes Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Yann Martel and Colm Tóibín, signed a letter condemning the series of fatal assaults and calling at the of a’s government “to ensure that the tragic activities … are not repeated”.
All the victims were energetic on social media, criticising the extremist Muslim ideologies which have gained strength in Bangladesh in current years or arguing in favour of progressive causes. On his Fb account, Chakrabarti frequently wrote in favour of girls’s rights.
Bangladesh is an officially secular country, but more than ninety% of its one hundred sixty million human beings are Muslim.
Police showed Chakrabarti were murdered by means of a collection of 1/2 a dozen people in the capital’s Goran neighbourhood, although they’d no info at the reason for the killing.
“There were six folks who knocked on his door, pronouncing that they were looking to rent a flat. Two of them then took him to a room and slaughtered him there,” Muntashirul Islam, a deputy police commissioner, stated.
Police did not touch upon fees that they had failed to act on Chakrabarti’s requests for safety.
Bangladeshi blogger named on hitlist warned: ‘You will be subsequent’
Examine a more group that has been related to al-Qaida claimed obligation for the killing in an e mail on Friday evening.
The email turned into sent inside the call of Ansar ul Islam, a touch recognized company that has claimed responsibility for preceding murders of bloggers and describes itself because the Bangladesh branch of al-Qaida within the Indian Subcontinent (Aqis).
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the chief of al-Qaida, announced the introduction of an affiliate in south Asia last autumn.
Al-Qaida has misplaced ground to the more recent Islamic Kingdom in the latest months and has looked to extend its operations in different areas to keep its profile. Zawahiri has noted Bangladesh repeatedly in current communications.
The Dhaka Tribune, a nearby newspaper, suggested The e-mail as announcing: “We, al-Qaida inside the Indian Subcontinent, claim obligation for this operation as vengeance for the honor of the messenger of Allah. We claim struggle in opposition to the enemies of Allah and His Messenger. Enemies of Allah and His Messenger … we’re coming [for] you … If your ‘Freedom of Speech’ continues no limits, then widen your chests for ‘Freedom of our Machetes’.”
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Aqis additionally claimed obligation for Roy’s killing on 26 February, in which his wife changed into badly injured. An Islamist has been arrested over his homicide. Two students at non secular schools have been arrested over the killing of Washiqur Rahman.
Government in the politically unstable south Asian Country were time and again criticised for no longer acting to shield unfastened speech, although the Ansarullah Bangla Crew (ABT), a hardline Islamist group, become banned following Das’s murder.
Police agree with the ABT may be in the back of the three attacks. Individuals of the institution have already been charged with the 2013 murder of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider.
One hardline organization, Hefazat-e-Islam, has publicly sought the execution of atheists who organised mass protests in opposition to the upward thrust of political Islam.
Hefazat, led by means of Islamic seminary teachers, additionally staged a large counter-protest in opposition to the bloggers in May 2013 that unleashed violence and left nearly 50 humans lifeless.
Lively bloggers in Bangladesh instructed the Father or mother earlier this 12 months they acquired loss of life threats so regularly they couldn’t remember. They also chance jail phrases of up to 14 years for publishing material that Government deem to be false or defamatory.
In 2013, atheist blogger Asif Mohiuddin changed into stabbed in the street by way of religious extremists. A month later, he turned into arrested and held in jail for making derogatory remarks approximately religion and his weblog turned into banned.
