UPDATED::Avijit Roy's publisher, 2 bloggers hacked in Dhaka | Dhaka Tribune

UPDATE::Bangladeshi Police Arrest Islamic Radical Suspected of Attacking Publisher of Atheist Books

I bring all that up because Bangladeshi police may have found Tutul’s assailant. The police made headlines last week when they rounded up at least 3,000 people (some estimates say 8,000) suspected of being Islamic radicals. One of those suspects has now been charged with carrying out the attack on Tutul,,,

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And it continues, first Avijit Roy, continuing with Washiqur Rahman, Ananta Bijoy Das, and then Niloy Neel.  Sadly now, Faisal Arefin Dipon; publisher of some of Roy’s books as head of the Jagriti Prakashani publishing house.

Three bloggers and writers, including the publisher of Shuddhashar Prokashani, Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, have been hacked in the capital's Lalmatia area.

Shuddhashar Prokashani published slain writer-blogger Avijit Roy's book Shunya Theke Mahabishwa and the publisher reportedly received death threat after the brutal murder of Avijit. Tutul has written two poetry books--Durbalataguchchha, Mrita Ghorhar Hresha.


Two other injured bloggers-writers are--Sudeep Kumar Ray Barman, who writes under the name of Ranadipam Basu, and Tareq Rahim.

Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Friendly Atheist has a nice write up with responses from the Center For Inquiry-US, Centre For Inquiry-Canada and the American Humanist Association.

If you do not speak out against the extremism you condone it, it is no longer fringe when it is occurs in our everyday life.  Religion (all religion) must be eliminated from the public sphere.

Avijit Roy's publisher, 2 bloggers hacked in Dhaka | Dhaka Tribune

See also: Bangladesh: Publisher of secular books Faisal Arefin Deepan hacked to death

The Eternal Regret of Ananta

I do not how else to preface the following other than to sa just read it.  Thank you to Matthew Facciani for sharing.

This is a piece written by Farid Ahmed, a friend of murdered secular blogger Ananta Bijoy Das. Ahmed is the current moderator of Avijit Roy’s Mukto-Mona website. The following is a harrowing account of how dangerous it is to simply write about secular issues in Bangladesh. More people need to learn what life can be like for these brave writers. We need to put pressure on the Bangladeshi government to protect all of their people and end these horrific events. So please consider sharing Ahmed’s article here and especially sharing the petition below to protect Bangladeshi bloggers. This article was translated from Bangla to English by Riasat Ahsan.
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Just a month and a half ago, when the founder of the Mukto-Mona blog, popular science author, and rationalist Avijit Roy was savagely hacked to death with machetes on his way back from a book fair, Ananta Bijoy Das felt grief accompanied by a chill of fear running down his spine. It wasn’t just him; all the Bangladeshi rationalist writers felt uneasiness. Then, just one month later when Washiqur Rahman Babu was also attacked in the middle of the day, in front of scores of people and murdered in the same brutal manner, the fear turned into intense panic. The panic caused many to stop writing or hide behind pseudonyms, and some to lose enthusiasm and only make irregular appearances in the world of writing.

Ananta was no exception. He was also gripped by panic following the murders of Avijit Roy and Washiqur Rahman. He knew that he was unsafe during this turbulent time of hostilities. He maintained a low profile and covered his tracks as best as he could and started living a kind of “life on the run.”  Such a life, however, is not for a normal human being. One cannot remain healthy with the constant anxiety and fear of malicious attacks and an untimely death. Therefore, like many others, Ananta was attempting to go abroad as soon as possible. Doing so would mean leaving behind his beloved country, his dearest parents, and his brothers and sisters. Even so, at least he would be able to heave a sigh of relief, and live his life in freedom.  This was the motivation behind his resolve to leave the country. He wrote to many places and asked several people to write recommendation letters for him to aid his departure. I was one of them.

The Eternal Regret of Ananta

UPDATE::Bangladesh police arrest 3 suspects in bloggers' murders

So there has been progress on three of the assassinations, good,,,

Authorities in Bangladesh said Tuesday that they have arrested three men, including a British citizen, for their involvement in the murders of two secular bloggers.

The three are suspected members of the Ansarullah Bangla Team, a banned Islamic militant outfit, said Maj. Maksudul Alam, a spokesman for the country's Rapid Action Battalion. Bangladesh banned the group in May after police accused its members of threatening and killing bloggers and writers.

Alam said one of the arrested men, Touhidur Rahman — a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin — was the mastermind and financier of the attacks on bloggers Avijit Roy and Ananta Bijoy Das, who were killed earlier this year.

The suspects were arrested Monday night in raids in Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, and appeared with authorities at a news briefing Tuesday.

Mufti Mahmud Khan, the head of the battalion's media wing, told reporters that while Rahman was the main planner of the killings, another suspect who was arrested, Sadek Ali, acted as a bridge to communicate with Mufti Jasim Rahmani, the alleged head of the militant group. Ali, 28, became involved with Rahmani while working as a printing press worker, Khan said.

Bangladesh police arrest 3 suspects in bloggers' murders

Third atheist blogger killed in Bangladesh knife attack | World news | The Guardian

 I find this just so disconcerting,,,

A secular blogger has been hacked to death in north-east Bangladesh, the third such deadly attack this year.

Police said Ananta Bijoy Das was murdered as he headed to work at abank in the city of Sylhet, an attack that fellow writers saidhighlighted a culture of impunity.

Kamrul Hasan, commissioner of Sylhet police, said a group of about four masked attackers pounced on Das with machetes at about 8.30am on Tuesday on a busy street in Bangladesh’s fifth-largest city.

“They chased him down the street and first attacked his head with their machetes and then attacked him all over his body,” Hasan told Agence France-Presse. The attackers fled into the crowds and Das was taken to hospital but declared dead on arrival, police and medics said.

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Bangladesh is an officially secular country but more than 90% of its 160 million population are Muslims. There has been an increase in attacks by religious extremists in recent years. Supporters of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, which is banned from standing in elections, have been accused of being behind a spate of firebombings this year aimed at toppling the government.

Since 2013, at least five bloggers have been attacked by Islamists after another hardline group, Hefazat-e-Islam, publicly sought the execution of atheists who organised mass protests against the rise of political Islam.

Third atheist blogger killed in Bangladesh knife attack | World news | The Guardian