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Machete-wielding gang kills secular Bangladeshi blogger in his home Bangladesh blogger killed by machete gang had asked for police protection
(35 minutes later)
A gang armed with machetes hacked a secular blogger to death at his home in Dhaka, in the fourth such killing in Bangladesh since the start of the year. A well-known secular blogger in Bangladesh, who has been murdered at his home in the latest such attack, had told police of threats against him and requested protection weeks before he died.
Niloy Chakrabarti, who used the pen-name Niloy Neel, was killed after the gang broke into his apartment, according to the Bangladesh Blogger and Activist Network, which was alerted to the attack by a witness. Niloy Chakrabarti, who used the pen name Niloy Neel, was hacked to death with machetes on Friday after a gang broke into his apartment in the Bangladeshi capital.
“They entered his room in the fifth floor and shoved his friend aside and then hacked him to death. He was a listed target of the Islamist militants,” Imran H Sarker, the network’s head, said. In an interview with the Guardian in May, Chakrabarti said he had filed reports with local police about continued harassment and was scared that he would be killed. However, his complaints were not taken seriously, he claimed.
Imran H Sarker, head of the Bangladesh Blogger and Activist Network, said Chakrabarti had been a “listed target”. “They entered his room on the fifth floor and shoved his friend aside and then hacked him to death,” Sarker told Agence France-Presse.
Related: Avijit Roy, the blogger who wouldn't back down in the face of threatsRelated: Avijit Roy, the blogger who wouldn't back down in the face of threats
Police confirmed Chakrabarti had been murdered by a group of half a dozen people in the capital’s Goran neighbourhood, although they had no details on his background or the motive for the killing. Chakrabarti is the fourth blogger to be killed in Bangladesh since February, when Bangladeshi-born US citizen Avijit Roy, a science writer and blog site moderator, was hacked to death in central Dhaka.
“There were six people who knocked his door, saying that they were looking to rent a flat. Two of them then took him to a room and then slaughtered him there,” Muntashirul Islam, a deputy police commissioner said. That killing prompted outrage around the world with more than 150 writers, including Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Yann Martel and Colm Tóibín, signing a letter condemning the series of fatal attacks and calling on the country’s government “to ensure that the tragic events … are not repeated”.
“His wife was in the flat but she was confined to another room.” The other victims of recent attacks include Ananta Bijoy Das, who was murdered by a group wielding machetes on 13 May as he headed to work in Sylhet, northern Bangladesh, and 27-year-old Washiqur Rahman, killed in Dhaka in March.
Chakrabarti is the fourth secular blogger to be killed in the Muslim-majority nation this year. Bangladeshi-born US citizen Avijit Roy, a writer and moderator of a blog site, was hacked to death in Dhaka in February. All had been active on social media, criticising the extremist Muslim ideologies that have gained strength in Bangladesh in recent years or arguing in favour of progressive causes. On his Facebook account, Chakrabarti frequently wrote in favour of women’s rights.
The other victims were Ananta Bijoy Das, who was attacked in May as he headed to work in Sylhet, and 27-year-old Washiqur Rahman, hacked to death in Dhaka in March. Bangladesh is an officially secular country, but more than 90% of its 160 million people are Muslim.
Bangladeshi authorities banned the hardline Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) following Das’s murder in May, after facing accusations that they were doing too little to stop such attacks. Police confirmed Chakrabarti had been murdered by a group of half a dozen people in the capital’s Goran neighbourhood, although they had no details on the motive for the killing.
Bangladesh is an officially secular country but more than 90% of its 160 million people are Muslim. “There were six people who knocked on his door, saying 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, said.
Police did not comment on charges that they had failed to act on Chakrabarti’s requests for protection.
Related: Bangladeshi blogger named on hitlist warned: 'You will be next'
Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent claimed responsibility for Roy’s killing on 26 February, in which his wife was badly injured. An Islamist has been arrested over his murder. Two students at religious schools were arrested over the killing of Washiqur Rahman.
Authorities in the politically unstable south Asian state have been repeatedly criticised for not acting to protect free speech, though the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a hardline Islamist group, was banned following Das’s murder.
Police believe the ABT may be behind the three attacks. Members of the group have already been charged with the 2013 murder of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider.
One hardline group, Hefazat-e-Islam, has publicly sought the execution of atheists who organised mass protests against the rise of political Islam.
Hefazat, led by Islamic seminary teachers, also staged a massive counter-protest against the bloggers in May 2013 that unleashed violence and left nearly 50 people dead.
Active bloggers in Bangladesh told the Guardian earlier this year they received death threats “so frequently” they could not be counted. They also risk jail terms of up to 14 years for publishing material that authorities deem to be false or defamatory.
In 2013, atheist blogger Asif Mohiuddin was stabbed in the street by religious extremists. A month later, he was arrested and held in prison for making derogatory remarks about religion and his blog was banned.