Secular blogger killed in Bangladesh; fourth this year

A group of attackers hacked a Bangladeshi blogger to death Friday in his apartment in the capital of Dhaka, authorities said.

Niloy Neel, an organiser of Science and Rationalist Association Bangladesh feared for his life after the killing spree started in Bangladesh earlier this year. “He was a listed target of the Islamist militants”, the network’s head, Imran H. Sarker, told AFP.

He was an activist of the Ganajagaran Mancha, the forum demanding a ban on Islamist parties and maximum penalty for convicted war criminals of Bangladesh’s liberation war in 1971.

Niloy Chakrabarti, 40, was known as Niloy Neel on Facebook.

Two people have been arrested, but no-one charged, in connection with this year’s killings, our correspondent adds.

Khilgaon police OC Mustafizur Rahman told bdnews24.com that “Niloy” was slaughtered in his flat on the fourth floor of a building at North Gorhan around 1:45pm on Friday.

“His wife was in the flat but she was confined to another room”.

Another blogger, Oyasiqur Rahman Babu, was hacked to death in the capital only a month after secular blogger and former Buet teacher Avijit Roy was killed by extremists during Ekushey Book Fair in February.

All four bloggers killed were involved with the Ganajagaran Mancha.

Another secular blogger, Ananta Bijoy Das, was attacked by machete-wielding attackers and killed in the northeastern district of Sylhet on May 12.

Bangladesh has been witnessing several deaths of people, particularly writers.

The three men were all critical of religious intolerance, a sensitive issue in Bangladesh which although technically a secular country is gripped by religiously-motivated politics and violence. A number of author, bloggers, organizer was killed one after another.