Bangladesh has vowed to seek out the killers of Dhaka-based blogger Niloy Chatterjee, as activists expressed outrage and referred to as for justice following his hacking dying.
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Suspected militants, armed with machetes and cleavers, entered an apartment building in Bangladesh’s capital and hacked to death a secular blogger in the fourth such deadly attack this year, police said.
Devjyoty Rudro, one other blogger, stated many writers worry for his or her lives.
“Two of them then took him to a room and then slaughtered him there”, deputy police commissioner Muntashirul Islam said.
In February, machete-wielding assailants killed a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin and critic of religious militancy, Avijit Roy, and seriously injured his wife and fellow blogger, Rafida Bonya Ahmed, after they left a book fair.
Bangladeshi students and social activists participate in a protest against the killing of a blogger Niloy Chowdhury, 40, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, August 7, 2015.
The police said the attack happened at around 1.30 PM today when the five assailants came to the apartment, posturing as tenants, looking for a house to rent in the Gotan area of Dhaka. “He was a listed target of the Islamist militants”, Imran H. Sarker, head of the Bangladesh Blogger and Activist Network, told the news source.
“He is the fourth secularist blogger to be murdered in Bangladesh, following Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman and Ananta Bijoy Das”.
Online activists and secular bloggers who write on rationalism and criticize orthodox religious or fundamental beliefs are often targeted by jihadist groups in Bangladesh.
Chakrabarti was the last victim of a series of brutal murders, where no arrests have been made yet.
Meanwhile, Ansarullah Al Islam, which describes itself as the Bangladesh chapter of Al Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for Mr Neel’s death, according to Daily Star, a Dhaka newspaper. The authenticity of the email could not be independently confirmed.
Rights groups condemned all of the bloggers’ murders.
The US has termed the killing as a “cowardly” incident and underlined the need to work together to counter violent extremism.???
United Nations human rights officials called for Bangladeshi authorities to ensure accountability and prevent such violence.
The UN Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression and extra judicial executions, David Kaye and Christof Heyns called for a prompt and thorough investigation into the recent murders of bloggers. The following month, 26-year-old Rahman was killed.
“Muslims are killing Muslims by carrying out suicide attacks”.
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“At least, this can’t be done in Bangladesh, we won’t allow this to happen…we will face them with an iron hand”, she said at a function in the capital yesterday.
