The two writers have been identified as Ranadeep Basu and Tareque Rahim. They allegedly attacked the three with sharp weapons. “We did not see anything though”. There was a common pattern in the both the attacks today with the perpetrators locking the victims inside their offices before carrying out the crimes. Police also visited his office at Sutrapur.
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Police spokesman Muntashirul Islam said officers had seen the statement, but could not confirm whether the Al-Qaeda branch was responsible for attacks. Tutul remains in critical condition. “The government should immediately strengthen its efforts against terror groups expected to be carrying out these attacks”.
The 43-year-old chief of the Jagriti Prokashoni publishing house published books by Avijit Roy, a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin who was murdered in the same way in February.
The publisher was found stabbed dead yesterday at his publishing house office situated on the second-floor of the Aziz Market hours after assailants stabbed Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, proprietor of Shuddhoswar.
“We are still unsure about the reasons for the attack”.
“We had to break the lock to recover them”, he said.
Britain’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Robert Gibson, condemned the attack on Twitter.
On August 7, attackers entered the apartment of blogger Niladri Niloy Chattapadhay and hacked him to death.
Bangladesh prides itself on being a mainly moderate Muslim nation, but the gruesome killings along with the Shiite shrine bombing have heightened fears for minorities. Das, also an activist of Gonojagoron Mancha, succumbed to his wounds in a local hospital. Since then three other bloggers have been killed. The book was popular with secular thinkers and intellectuals, but had upset Islamist radicals, who are suspected to be involved in his murder, according to Bangladesh News. They significantly injured his spouse and fellow blogger, Rafida Bonya Ahmed. Roy succumbed to his injuries after being admitted to a hospital. Roy was an advocate of free expression in Bangladesh, coordinating worldwide protests against government censorship and imprisonment of atheist bloggers. “They were attacked in their heads and chests”, Imran H. Sarker, the head of a secular bloggers’ group told AFP, adding two of the victims appeared to also have bullet wounds. Days later came the murder of a Japanese agriculturalist in northern Bangladesh.
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“This is not a typical crime as it is a preplanned targeted killing”. Others are maintaining a low profile by not writing about political issues and religion.
