Police officials in Bangladesh have charged four suspects with the murder of another atheist blogger, who was earlier accused of mocking Islam. Washiqur Rahman was hacked to death with a cleaver near his house in Dhaka on March 30, less than eight weeks after another atheist blogger, Avijit Roy, died from a similar assault in the capital city of the developing South-Asian country.
According to the police, three assailants with large cleavers killed 27-year-old Rahman after accusing him of defaming Islam through his articles that were widely shared across social media. Preliminary charges have been lodged against two of the suspects, both of whom are students at an Islamic school. They were arrested at the scene itself after bystanders overpowered them and strapped them to the road. The third assailant fled the scene and is yet to be found while the fourth, who is understood to be the plotter of the gruesome attack, is under investigation after his name came up during questioning.
Deputy commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarker said, “A case was filed against the four people, accusing them of the murder of the blogger.”
While Bangladesh is officially secular, it has witnessed a steep rise in extremist Islamic ideologies in recent years. The primarily Muslim country, with over 160 million people, won its freedom from Pakistan after a violent civil war in 1971 and it has since struggled to address profound disagreements over the role of politics and religion in society.
As after the death of Roy, bloggers, writers and other secular activists held a demonstration and candlelight march for Rahman as well at Dhaka University on Monday night. The European Union, which is Bangladesh’s primary trade partner, condemned the attack, calling it a display of “vile aggression”. Campaign groups have gone on to accuse state authorities of having failed to protect its citizens’ right to freedom of speech and expression.
“The killing of Washiqur Rahman is a another clear example of the Bangladeshi government’s utter failure to ensure the safety of those at risk. How many more bloggers will have to be attacked before action is taken?” asked Abbas Faiz, Amnesty International’s Bangladesh researcher.
The death of Roy, who was hacked to death with machetes in Dhaka less than two months ago, triggered widespread protest, with thousands of secular activists staging demonstrations for days to seek justice.
One of the suspects involved with the latest murder is believed to be a student at a popular religious school in Chittagong, which is associated with the radical group Hefazat e Islam that led a large-scale protest against secular writers in 2013, leaving approximately 50 people dead and several others injured. Police officials had then cracked down on several hardliners who visited Dhaka only to demand the execution of secular writers for insulting Islam.
Rahman, who died recently and had written a 52-episode series for a satirical, anti-religion website called Dhormockery.com, said the International Humanist and Ethical Union, a group based in London that also explained how Rahman’s series mocked various aspects of Islam and since he did not believe in organized religion, he was already a target for religious hardliners.
“He used to write a satirical column on Facebook against believers. He was an atheist. His killing has to be connected to his writing,” Tamanna Setu, a colleague said.
Reporters Without Borders went on to rank Bangladesh 146 out of 180 countries with respect to press freedom in 2014.
Photo Credits: Dhaka Tribune
