Unknown assailants have hacked to death a Ganajagaran Mancha activist and blogger inside his house in Dhaka, three months after another blogger in Sylhet was brutally murdered in broad daylight.
Khilgaon Police Station OC Mustafizur Rahman told bdnews24.com Niloy Chatterjee Neel was killed in his flat on the top floor of a four-storey building at East Gorhan around 1:45pm on Friday.
Rahman said five assailants armed with machetes entered the flat in two groups after the Juma prayers and killed Niloy.
His user name on social networking sites was Niloy Neel. He also used to blog against communalism and fundamentalism under this name on website ‘Istishon’ (Station).
The blogger recently received numerous threats for his writings and stance against radicalism, said people close to him.
He had removed all his photos from his Facebook page and used Kolkata as the current city he was living in after he had started getting the threats.
Niloy, the fourth blogger to have been murdered this year, had been living in that Gorhan flat with his family for the past two years. He also worked in an NGO.
OC Rahman said the attackers entered his home on the pretext that they wanted to rent a flat. “They fled right after slaughtering Niloy.”
DMP’s Detective Branch Joint Commissioner Krishnapada Roy told reporters at the crime scene, “There were signs of haphazard hacking on Niloy’s throat and neck.”
“The nature of the attack is very similar to those on other bloggers murdered earlier,” he said.
Radical militants had killed four other pro-liberation bloggers and legendary writer Humayun Azad in the same style of attack. Upper parts of the body, particularly head and neck, were the main targets.
Roy said Niloy’s murder right after Juma prayers was ‘planned’.
“They (assailants) chose to kill him at this time of the day because the men of the families close by had gone to attend the Juma prayers.”
Imran H Sarker, the Ganajagaran Mancha spokesperson, told bdnews24.com Niloy was an activist of the platform that is demanding a ban on Islamist parties and the maximum penalty for 1971 war criminals.
“Niloy was also a regular blogger,” he added.
Quoting family members, Sarker also said the attackers entered the building posing as potential tenants.
On the news of Niloy’s murder, Ganajagaran Mancha activists and leaders of Left-leaning student organisations thronged the North Gorhan building.
Agitated by the recent murders of writers and bloggers, Mancha activist Shammi Haque told police officials at the scene, “You’ve failed to arrest the killers of Avijit (Roy). You’ll fail in this case again.”
In February, writer-blogger Avijit Roy was hacked to death near the Dhaka University’s TSC. His wife and fellow blogger Rafida Ahmed Bonya was also badly injured in the brutal attack.
A month later, another blogger Oyasiqur Rahman Babu was killed in a similar fashion in the capital’s Tejgaon as violence against secularists continued.
Two months later, secular blogger Ananta Bijoy Das was killed in Sylhet.
In May, global terror network al-Qaeda’s Indian offshoot claimed responsibility for the killing of secular bloggers in Bangladesh whom it described as ‘blasphemers’.
All three killed were involved with the Ganajagaran Mancha.
Radical group Ansaruallah Bangla Team’s two suspected wings – Ansar Bangla 7 and Ansar Bangla 8 – had also claimed responsibility on social media for the deaths.
Two years ago, when the Ganajagaran Mancha movement was at its peak, its activist Ahmed Rajib Haider, another blogger, was hacked to death near his Mirpur home in Dhaka.
Source: Bd news24
Banning Islamist parties is not the answer. That’s a political rhetoric. What we have is a dysfunctional security system where people get away with heinous murders. Our last President Zillur Rahman pardoned killers and criminals. Killers are killers; whether they are Awami Leaguers, BNP or Islamists. All killers should be treated same and with hard fist. No killers or criminals should ever be pardoned as it gives a bad example. That an Awami criminal can get away while the Islamists get banged. Let’s treat criminals as criminals and fix our heavily corrupted police and judicial system.