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A prominent American blogger of Bangladeshi origin, known for his writing against religious fundamentalism, was hacked to death by unidentified assailants in Dhaka, according to the police.
Avijit Roy, 40, was attacked with machetes when he was returning from a book fair at Dhaka University late on Thursday night along with his wife Rafida Ahmed.
Avajit, founder of Mukto-Mona (free mind) blog site which defends liberal secular writing, was in a rickshaw with his wife when two assailants stopped it, dragged them to the footpath and started hacking him, according to eyewitnesses.
The couple were rushed to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. “He died as he was brought to the hospital. His wife was also seriously wounded. She has lost a finger,” local police chief Sirajul Islam was quoted as saying by AFP.
Avijit suffered fatal wounds in the head and died from bleeding.
The atheist writer’s family claims that he received numerous threats from hardline Islamist groups that have for long demanded his public execution.
The police have launched a investigation and recovered the machetes used in the attack. However, they could not confirm whether Islamists had a role to play in the killing.
Avijit had come to Bangladesh on a visit earlier this month and was to return to the United States in March, his younger brother Anujit Roy said. His friends told bdnews24.com that he was possibly trapped; some bloggers had invited him to a book fair event.
Baki Billah, a friend and a blogger, told Independent TV station that Avijit had been threatened earlier by people upset because of his writing "He was a free thinker. He was a Hindu but he was not only a strong voice against Islamic fanatics but also equally against other religious fanatics," Billah said.
Avijit’s well-known books are ‘Biswaser Virus’ (Virus of Faith) and ‘Sunyo theke Mahabiswa’ (From Vacuum to the Great World).
He is the second blogger to be killed in Bangladesh. In 2013, another atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was killed by unidentified assailants near his home in Dhaka.
Image: Avijit Roy is founder of Mukto-Mona (free mind) blog site which defends liberal secular writing. Photograph: Twitter