Bangladesh police on Saturday launched a massive hunt to nab the killers of secular blogger Niloy Chakrabarty Neel whose body bore around 14 hack wounds, four of which were on the neck.
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Criminals entered a fourth-floor apartment of Niloy Chakrabartee at his Khilgaon residence and confined Niloy’s wife and sister-in-law at one of the rooms and fatally stabbed Niloy, said police officer Mustafizur Rahman. “He was a listed target of the Islamist militants”, said Mr Imran Sarker, the network’s head.
Police confirmed Chakrabarti, 30, was murdered at his home in the capital’s Goran neighbourhood by four people who had pretended to look for a place to rent.
Dhaka Police spokesman, Muntashirul Islam, said, “We know that Niloy used to work for non-governmental organisations in the past but we are not aware of his journalistic identity”.
As we reported in February, Bangladeshi-born U.S. citizen Avijit Roy, described as a science writer and blog site moderator, was also hacked to death by a pair of attackers who assaulted him on a Dhaka street.
Mahbub Alam, deputy commissioner (east) of DB police, told reporters that the FBI would provide technical assistance if Bangladesh detectives need any help in the investigation of the killing.
“But we’ve learned from history that the people of Bangladesh doesn’t tolerate intimidation”.
Another Bangladeshi blogger who wrote about the perils of religious extremism was killed on Friday, the fourth this year in the Muslim-majority country.
Online activists and secular bloggers who write on rationalism and criticize orthodox religious or fundamental beliefs are often targeted by jihadist groups in Bangladesh.
Immediately after Chakrabarti’s murder, hundreds of secular activists joined a protest march in the city’s Shahbagh Square, which was also the venue for the demonstrations two years ago.
Ansar-Al-Islam, Bangladesh chapter of Al Qaeda in the Indian Sub-Continent, claimed responsibility for the killing terming him an enemy of Allah.
Bangladeshi social activists hold a banner displaying a portrait of blogger and author Ananta Bijoy Das during a protest against his killing, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, May 12, 2015. Khan rejected criticism that his government was not doing enough to keep liberal bloggers safe and said his government was “trying” to protect the activists.
After Das was killed, Sarker told VICE News there was a culture of impunity for the murder of bloggers in Bangladesh.
The UN chief and the European Union (EU) delegation to Bangladesh have condemned the killing of blogger Niladri Chattopadhyay Niloy. “The price for holding opinions and expressing them freely must not be death”.
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Neel had removed all his photos from his Facebook page and mentioned Kolkata as his current location after he had started getting the threats, it said.
