The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will “shortly” send a “small team” to Dhaka to assist Bangladeshi law-enforcing agencies investigate the brutal murder of the writer-blogger Avijit Roy.
The decision came after the Bangladesh government accepted the US offer to engage the FBI in the investigation process.
Avijit was a naturalised US citizen.
The embassy FBI representative “has been in contact with the family and is communicating with the police” after the government accepted the US offer, the US embassy spokesperson in Dhaka, Monica Shie, told bdnews24.com.
“The FBI will deploy a small team to Bangladesh shortly to assist and collaborate with Bangladeshi law-enforcement agencies to investigate the homicide,” she said.
She said the “most important role” of US embassies around the world was “to protect and provide assistance to US citizen living abroad”
“We offer assistance in the context of that mandate”.
Avijit along with his wife and fellow blogger Rafida Ahmed Bonya were brutally hacked near the Amar Ekushey Book Fair at Dhaka University on Feb 26 night.
He died later and Bonya is undergoing treatment.
She is also a US citizen and is preparing to leave for the US on Tuesday night for treatment, her friend Ahmedur Rashid Tutul told bdnews24.com.
The US embassy spokesperson, however, did not elaborate “due to privacy concerns”.
“We are providing every possible consular assistance to her, as she is a US citizen,” Shie said.
The US had earlier condemned the murder in the “strongest terms” and offered to help in the investigation.
Avijit’s family blamed extremists for the attack, which was similar to that on legendary writer Humayun Azad in the same month back in 2004.
Avijit had been facing threats from Islamist radicals for his secular blogging for a while.
Law-enforcing agencies have arrested Farabi Shafiur Rahman, and a member of the banned Islamist outfit ‘Ansarullah Bangla Team’ in this connection.
Rahman was earlier arrested for inciting attacks on bloggers on the social media after blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider’s murder in 2013, but later secured bail.
He had allegedly posted death threats directed at Avijit, noted for his writing against religious extremism.
The Ansarullah Bangla Team had been posting inciting speeches against bloggers, according to those arrested earlier for the murder of Haider, another outspoken blogger.
The Islamist outfit came to light when police arrested its chief Mufti Jasim Uddin Rahmani and 30 others from Barguna in August 2013.
The US embassy spokesperson said the FBI would be able “to provide technical assistance with regard to transnational aspects of the investigation”.
“Our cooperation in this investigation is a natural outgrowth of the strong and longstanding collaboration between our two countries on law enforcement issues,” she told bdnews24.com.
Source: Bd news24